There is no lack of hype around artificial intelligence. We have only begun to scratch the surface of what this powerful technology can do. While tech and financial services become more intertwined, cutting through the noise has become more difficult but also more crucial.

As a technology, AI is essential to advancing innovation, to creating efficiencies, and enhancing productivity while capturing opportunities by both incumbent financial institutions as well as fintechs. But it also comes with risks and potential for biases and disinformation, that can deepen inequalities and erode trust in our society. Responsible innovation must become part of our DNA and not as an afterthought.

This book provides a tailored overview of what AI specifically means for financial services, a highly regulated yet also disrupted industry. It investigates the current state of AI applications in financial services today along with the state of funding and partnerships between tech and banking industries. It also examines the key pillars of responsible AI and the importance of keeping humans in the loop. The book takes a deep dive into the use cases in the financial services industry, the challenges and opportunities, and the fragmented regulatory landscape. How can we effectively assess risks, and balance innovation and customer centricity with trust in AI in financial services? Can smaller organizations reap the benefits of the technology? How can institutions deploy AI responsibly and securely, and promote a fairer and more equitable future for more people? While data is about bits and bytes, the realities of AI is very much human. This book will help spark dialogue and collaboration as we journey into the future.

The book Inc. magazine calls one of the best, clearest guides to the numbers on the market.

Inc. magazine calls it one of the best, clearest guides to the numbers on the market. Readers agree, saying it's exactly what I need to know and calling it a must-read for decision makers without expertise in finance.

Since its release in 2006, Financial Intelligence has become a favorite among managers who need a guided tour through the numbers--helping them to understand not only what the numbers really mean, but also why they matter.

This new, completely updated edition brings the numbers up to date and continues to teach the basics of finance to managers who need to use financial data to drive their business. It also addresses issues that have become even more important in recent years--including questions around the financial crisis and those around broader financial and accounting literacy.

Accessible, jargon-free, and filled with entertaining stories of real companies, Financial Intelligence gives nonfinancial managers the confidence to understand the nuance beyond the numbers--to help bring everyday work to a new level.

Walks you through every step of the process--from valuation to securities laws to closing and successful integration.

When done correctly and cautiously, your company's next merger or acquisition should be an exciting, profitable time. But these complex transactions carry significant risk, no matter how simple or appealing they may look on the outside.

Complete with expert advice, case studies, checklists, and sample documents, this fully updated edition of Mergers and Acquisitions from A to Z is your complete guide to help you be prepared and take steps to eliminate rivals, extend territory, and diversify offerings.

It includes:

• The latest trends and regulatory developments.
• Best practices for structuring profitable deals.
• Effective ways to raise the capital needed to get deals done.
• Roles and risks for boards of directors in M&A.
• Guidelines for keeping deals on track and managing post-closing challenges.
• Valuable tools, checklists, and sample forms.

It is absolutely vital for all involved in the deal to make sure they are guarding themselves against costly mistakes that have been the downfall for many leaders and organizations before them.

The fourth edition of Mergers and Acquisitions from A to Z further explains how to conduct due diligence, calculate the purchase price, understand the roles and risks for boards, and more. Don't make another deal without this trusted resource and its strategic and legal guidance by your side.

Why did the stagflation of the 1970s--the improbable combination of high unemployment and runaway inflation--prove so painful and protracted? What explains the U.S. stock market's remarkable forty-year run of 12 percent average annual returns since then? Why is Japan still mired in a decades-long recession--and the Chinese economy in a tailspin? And what accounts for the resilience of U.S. stock and labor markets in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the face of the Fed's record interest rate hikes?

Donald H. Chew, Jr., argues that answers to these questions lie in the principles and methods of modern corporate finance. Ideas formulated and tested by finance scholars--notably, an efficient stock market in which prices reflect the long-run values of public companies and a market for corporate control that exerts continuous pressure on management--informed and spurred the investor-driven capitalism that has created the world's most productive and valuable companies. Drawing on his career-long relationships with leading academics and practitioners, Chew profiles key figures in the development of modern corporate finance while emphasizing their counterintuitive lessons for shareholders, companies, and countries. Corporate efficiency and value creation, he contends, are the fundamental source of the social wealth essential to addressing challenges such as poverty and climate change. Lively and provocative, this book makes corporate finance approachable--and even admirable--for readers interested in how the success and failure of companies affect their lives.

Unlock the power of shareholder capitalism -- a system that transcends zero-sum games and Wall Street stereotypes. In its essence, shareholder capitalism enables mutually beneficial trade, a concept ingrained in our human history for over 300,000 years. This approach fosters specialization, fuels innovation, and propels economic growth.

In this engaging new book, David McLean explains how embracing shareholder capitalism doesn't negate the significance of other institutions; rather, it allows businesses to excel in providing the goods, services, and jobs that make society better off. Shareholder capitalism isn't about disregarding stakeholders; it thrives on mutually beneficial partnerships, and managers are entrusted to maximize shareholder value, focusing on companies' long-term success, which drives overall prosperity. Profits, the ultimate measure of value, steer businesses toward creating goods and services that benefit society.

While shareholder capitalism is the overarching theme in Finance 101 courses, it is increasingly criticized, especially with the popularization of concepts like ESG investing and stakeholder capitalism. McLean argues that corporate social responsibility, while well-intentioned, shouldn't replace the democratic process in policymaking, and can lead to unintended consequences. Our journey through capitalism, beginning around 1800, has brought unprecedented prosperity, and it's essential to safeguard this system for the betterment of society, with democracy and free trade as our guiding beacons.

When Profit from the Core was published in 2001, it became an international bestseller, helping hundreds of companies find their way back to profitable growth after the bursting of the Internet bubble.

The 2007 global financial meltdown reaffirmed the perils of pursuing heady growth through untested strategies, as firms in industries from finance to retailing to automobiles strayed too far from their core businesses and suffered the consequences. In this updated edition of Profit from the Core, authors Chris Zook and James Allen show that a renewed focus on the core is more critical than ever as firms seek to rebuild their competitive advantage coming out of the downturn--and that a strong core will be the foundation for successful expansion as the economy recovers.

Based on more than ten years of Bain & Company research and analysis and fresh examples from firms responding to the current downturn, the book outlines what today's executives and managers need to do now to revitalize their core, identify the next wave of profitable growth, and build on it successfully. Zook and Allen explain how companies can:

• Develop a strong, well-defined core and use it to establish a leadership position
• Follow the golden rule of strategy: discourage competitors from investing in your core
• Assess whether your core is operating at its full potential
• Uncover hidden assets in your core that provide the seeds for new growth
• Find a repeatable formula to apply core business strengths in adjacent markets

Building on powerful and proven ideas to meet today's formidable business challenges, Profit from the Core is the back-to-basics strategy field guide no manager should be without.

In an increasingly complex and competitive business environment, the role of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has taken on an ever increasing level of importance in their organizations. Named CFO of the Year by the Houston Business Journal in 2014, Tony Tripodo shares his insights as to what it takes to become a successful CFO. With over 40 years' experience, mostly as a CFO in various organizations, but also as a board member and entrepreneur, Tony draws on the many lessons he has learned over the years with the knowledge of what works and what doesn't work for a CFO to achieve success as a dynamic and positive influence for their organization.

By the author of the modern classic The Black Swan, this collection of aphorisms and meditations expresses his major ideas in ways you least expect.

The Bed of Procrustes takes its title from Greek mythology: the story of a man who made his visitors fit his bed to perfection by either stretching them or cutting their limbs. It represents Taleb's view of modern civilization's hubristic side effects--modifying humans to satisfy technology, blaming reality for not fitting economic models, inventing diseases to sell drugs, defining intelligence as what can be tested in a classroom, and convincing people that employment is not slavery.

Playful and irreverent, these aphorisms will surprise you by exposing self-delusions you have been living with but never recognized.

With a rare combination of pointed wit and potent wisdom, Taleb plows through human illusions, contrasting the classical values of courage, elegance, and erudition against the modern diseases of nerdiness, philistinism, and phoniness.

Taleb's crystalline nuggets of thought stand alone like esoteric poems.--Financial Times

Excessive corporate debt can lead to financial distress, which prevents a business from realizing its full potential. When this occurs, a company transforms into a zombie, incapable of making essential investments for its future growth or attracting the resources required to execute its business strategy effectively.

In this book, the restructuring veteran Mike Harmon provides an indispensable go-to guide tailored for executives, business owners, boards of directors, creditors, advisors, and investors grappling with financial distress. He equips stakeholders with an invaluable tool kit for mending a company's fractured balance sheet while demystifying complex techniques and explaining restructuring methods in an accessible fashion.

Readers will acquire the skills needed to detect early warning signs of distress and to formulate a financial restructuring plan that reduces the risk of future trouble. They will learn how an effective plan optimizes the objectives of a company's various stakeholders, its ability to service future financial obligations, its legal and contractual constraints, and its future prospects and business strategy.

Written for both current and aspiring practitioners, The Financial Restructuring Tool Set is not just a survival guide--it is a blueprint for transformation, empowering stakeholders to achieve a brighter, more prosperous future.

People around the world have recognized this opportunity, producing resist designs in textiles by shaping and then securing cloth in various ways before dyeing. Yet in no other country has the creative potential of this basic principle been understood and applied as it has in Japan. Here, in fact, it has been expanded into a whole family of traditional resist techniques, involving first shaping the cloth by plucking, pinching, twisting, stitching, folding, pleating, and wrapping it, and then securing the shapes thus made by binding, looping, knotting, clamping, and the like. This entire family of techniques is called shibori.

Designs created with shibori processes all share a softness of outline and spontaneity of effect. Spontaneity is shibori's special magic, made possible by exploiting the beauty of the fortuitous things that happen when dye enters shaped cloth.

Usually it is in response to the fact that a craft is being lost that the need for preserving and documenting it arises. The motivation behind this book is no exception, but the authors have gone far beyond simple documentation. Extensive research and experimentation have led to the revival here of shibori techniques that were once well known but have now been largely forgotten in Japan. In addition to more conventional techniques, the work of contemporary fiber artists in Japan and abroad in shibori textile art and wearable art is presented, to suggest the extent of the creative innovation possible.

The 104 color and 298 black-and-white plates include a photographic Gallery of Shibori Examples, based on Japan's largest collection of traditional shibori fabrics. Included also are a detailed guide to basic natural dyes used in Japan, the making and care of an indigo vat, and a list of suppliers in North America, as well as a glossary and bibliography. Now available in paperback, this full documentation of one of the world's most inventive and exciting dyeing techniques continues as a classic in the textile field.

Critical insights for savvy financial analysts

Financial Planning & Analysis and Performance Management is the essential desk reference for CFOs, FP&A professionals, investment banking professionals, and equity research analysts. With thought-provoking discussion and refreshing perspective, this book provides insightful reference for critical areas that directly impact an organization's effectiveness. From budgeting and forecasting, analysis, and performance management, to financial communication, metrics, and benchmarking, these insights delve into the cornerstones of business and value drivers. Dashboards, graphs, and other visual aids illustrate complex concepts and provide reference at a glance, while the author's experience as a CFO, educator, and general manager leads to comprehensive and practical analytical techniques for real world application.

Financial analysts are under constant pressure to perform at higher and higher levels within the realm of this consistently challenging function. Though areas ripe for improvement abound, true resources are scarce--until now. This book provides real-world guidance for analysts ready to:

• Assess performance of FP&A function and develop improvement program
• Improve planning and forecasting with new and provocative thinking
• Step up your game with leading edge analytical tools and practical solutions
• Plan, analyze and improve critical business and value drivers
• Build analytical capability and effective presentation of financial information
• Effectively evaluate capital investments in uncertain times

The most effective analysts are those who are constantly striving for improvement, always seeking new solutions, and forever in pursuit of enlightening resources with real, useful information. Packed with examples, practical solutions, models, and novel approaches, Financial Planning & Analysis and Performance Management is an invaluable addition to the analyst's professional library. Access to a website with many of the tools introduced are included with the purchase of the book. Please see About the Website page for access instructions.

En este libro, Brian Tracy, autor bestseller de The New York Times, enseña las leyes del dinero y cómo obtenerlo desde la perspectiva del método científico. Estas leyes han sido probadas una y otra vez no sólo por algunos años, sino durante siglos por miles de personas y siempre han dado el mismo resultado: prosperidad. Si simplemente estudias las ideas de este libro y las aplicas a tu vida y a tus negocios, en poco tiempo podrás ver los efectos del éxito financiero.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

The subject of money remains one of the most fascinating, thought provoking, emotional, polarizing and well researched subjects in the world. Scores of books, articles, blog posts, and speeches have been written on what money is, how to earn it, how to spend it, who has it and who does not and a myriad of other topics related to the effects that it produces. And yet, despite the constant focus and interest on the topic, there is one word that describes the average person's views around money: confusion.

It seems that, there is so much dis-information (what we might call financial white noise), that most people either rely on chance for their fortune, or they ignore the subject altogether. This is not only unnecessary, it is a tragedy, because of the untapped human potential that is never uncovered when people leave their lives to chance, or give up on their dreams. It's also totally unnecessary, because the topic of money―how to create it, how to invest it, and how to spend it wisely―is known. Truly, there is a science of money, just as there is a science of nutrition, chemistry, and engineering.

This science of money has been tested and proven again and again. And while new theories can arise all the time―just as we have new theories for cures for cancer or baldness, for example―the discipline of science, and it's rules for testing and verifying results―will, in short order, move these ideas from the realm of theory to one of two categories: ―The Laws of Money that have been proven and can be relied upon―as much as you can rely upon the sun rising in the East and setting in the West―and The Myths of Money―those ideas (some of which may still be around, just as rumor or innuendo can exist without any basis) which claim to be true, but which have been tested and disproven, or which at best have never been decidedly proven.

Ultimately, this program has one central goal: To end all of the confusion once and for all, and to present, in one comprehensive program, the essential truths about money. If you simply study the ideas in this program, and apply them to your life and your business, you will become financially successful―as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow.

Do you get complete financial reports for your business at least once a month?

Do you understand what all those numbers mean?

Do you use the information in those reports to help you make smart decisions about your business?

If you answer no to any or all of these questions, then turn to Managing by the Numbers, a highly practical and accessible antidote to financial anxiety. Chuck Kremer, Ron Rizzuto, and John Case show you how to manage the three bottom lines of business financial performance -- net profit, operating cash flow, and return on assets -- and roll them into the Financial Scoreboard to see the big picture at a glance. Offering step-by-step examples and an extensive glossary of key terms and concepts, Managing by the Numbers is a commonsense guide to making those numbers work for you -- to monitor and measure performance, make smart decisions, and drive long-term growth. It is an essential resource for anyone eager to improve their mastery of the financial side of running a business.

Have you ever tried to learn to code or to use advanced visualization tools? If so, I am sure you know how daunting it is to learn by yourself.

Generally, tools and books follow an encyclopedism approach, i.e., books attempt to teach every feature about a coding language or tool. This implies hundreds, if not thousands of pages simply to tackle a single topic, whether SQL, Python, MS Excel, MS PowerBI, you name it. The journey from zero to hero to become proficient using numerical and visualization tools to take your career to the next level becomes an ordeal that requires years and thousands of pages just to begin putting the pieces of the puzzle together. However, the reality is that you do not need to learn absolutely every available feature to use those tools and deliver a superior project.

Rather than teaching you about the forest, I will discuss specific trees. Why? Because once you become familiar and confident nurturing a few trees, growing a forest becomes a simple process of planting new trees. This book provides the fundamental blocks so that you can learn about financial data science and take these tools and start using them tomorrow. The scope of the selected tools will empower you to see a considerable improvement in your financial modeling skills.

The book is designed to provide corporate finance professionals the ability to start immediately using advance tools for concrete real-world tasks.

Therefore, this book is all about functionalism. It is about providing you with tools that will put you to work and dramatically change the way you analyze data. Once you see the benefits, it will become natural to keep expanding your domain knowledge, leveraging today's endless available educational resources.

A fresh perspective on what it takes to run a moneymaking small business

If you're a small business owner, you probably started out with a great idea, an entrepreneurial dream, and the willingness to work as hard as you have to. You're up-and-running, your products and services are selling, and you are working as hard as you can. But where do you go from here? How do you get there? And how can you be sure your business will make you money now and for the long term?

Found Money presents a new and powerful approach to small-business success. It helps you figure out, instantly, whether your business is on-track or flying off the rails (and how to correct it if it is flying off the rails). Not only does it help you understand how your business makes you money, but how to control that process as well. It offers accessible, easy-to-use tools and tactics to help you understand the links between what happens in your small business and the financial results you achieve so you can proactively create the financial results you want.

• Helps you maximize the money your small business makes by showing you where additional profit and cash flow is hiding right now in your business
• Steve Wilkinghoff is an accountant and consultant who helps businesses reach their full, money-making potential
• Foreword by Michael Gerber, preeminent small business guru

If you own your own small business but don't know how to take control of the financial results it gives you, Found Money hands you the strategies, tactics and tools you need to take control, and direct and maximize the money-making process.