Finance: Fast Track to Success

220 Pages·2009·3.414 MB·English

by  Alan Bonham, Ken. Langdon

ABOUT THe AUTHORS GET THE RESULTS YOU F eVeRYTHING YOU NeeD TO eVeRYTHING YOU NeeD TO
A
S ACCeLeRATe YOUR CAReeR ACCeLeRATe YOUR CAReeR
T
WANT IN FINANCE. T
R
ALAN BONHAM has spent A The Fast Track books provide you with a
C
most of his time training complete resource to get ahead as a manager
FAST. K
others since qualifying as a T – faster. Specially designed to help you develop
Chartered Accountant. He O the skills you need to fast track your career,
began his career as a Director S each book is broken down into four key areas:
U
at Anderson’s Tutors Limited. C
From there, he joined Neville If you want to get ahead in business you need to get to C Awareness - find out where you are now and
e
Russell as a training manager grips with the financial side of your job. If you can read and S what you need to do to improve
S
before spending 16 years as a freelance understand financial accounts and management accounts
lecturer and training consultant specialising in Business building - the tools and techniques
– and know the difference between them – you will be far
audit and accounting topics. F FAST TRACK TO SUCCeSS used by high performance teams
better placed to make the right decisions. Fast Track to
I
Most recently, Alan was Director of Training Success: Finance will teach you the key skills you need to N Career development - the steps you should
FINANCE
for SWAT Ltd where he was responsible for the take now if you want to get ahead
excel in finance and accelerate your career development.
development of SWAT’s national programme A
It includes:
of CPD training. Alan is now working again as Director’s toolkit - tips to get you to the top.
N
a freelance lecturer advising firms on their And make sure you stay there!
audit procedures and offering practical help Finance in a nutshell - a Simple checklists to help
C
in achieving compliance in a cost-effective series of FAQs to give you you identify the strengths
ALAN BONHAM & KeN LANGDON
manner. He also works with non-accountants a concise overview of the and weaknesses of your E Fast Track features include:
and is the co-author of Smart Things to Know subject capabilities and those of
About Business Finance and Interpreting The Fast Track Top 10 – a summary of
your team ’explains financial jargon, relates it to real business life and shows
Company Reports for Dummies. The top 10 tools and the information you need to shine
&A you how to use the financial side of your job to improve performance.’
techniques to develop your Tips on how to progress
approach to finance your career, whether it’s KLA Martin Webb, Presenter of Channel 4’s Quick Tips and FAQs
e
KEN LANGDON has been your first 10 weeks in NN Risking it All and entrepreneur Real-life case stories
an independent trainer and Atedavmic e– hoonw le taod dinegc iydoeu yro ur the job or whether you’re LA BO Practical career guidance – includes a
management consultant looking to get right to NN framework of objectives for your first
following a career in a major leadership style and build GH
computer company. One of his your team the top DA 10 weeks in a new role
OM
specialisms is teaching financial N expert Voices – the state of the art view
matters to non-financial people. Don’t get left behind, set out on the Fast Track today. For more from today’s leading experts

resources, log on to the series website at www.Fast-Track-Me.com.
He runs his own pension fund and was the
treasurer of a successful investment club. He www.Fast-Track-Me.com is a highly
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO ACCELERATE YOUR CAREER
is the author of a number of books on business interactive resource, custom-designed to
strategy and contributed to the FT Guide complement the books – log on now to get
to Reading the Financial Pages and the FT on the Fast Track today.
Handbook of Management.
£14.99
BUSINESS
Visit our website at
www.pearson-books.com Visit our website at
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Series design by R&D&Co An imprint of Pearson Education
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PRAISE FOR FINANCE
FASTTRACK
“
It’s always useful to read the wit and wisdom of Ken Langdon's
and Alan Bonham's approach to business. If you want to build
your confidence in debating issues with the finance department – this
book is for you. It explains financial jargon, relates it to real business
lifeandshowsyouhowtousethefinancialsideofyourjobtoimprove
”
performance.
MartinWebb,PresenterofChannel4’sRiskingitAllandentrepreneur
“
I like the way the book not only shows you how finance works
but also explains how to use the financial side of business to
buildyourcareerandaspiretotheboardroom–aneasyreadofanirri-
”
tatinglycomplicatedtopic.
RichardHumphreys,FormerCEOSaatchi&SaatchiAdvertisingWorldwide
andserialentrepreneur
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A01_BONH1789_01_SE_FM.QXD:Layout 1 16/3/09 15:45 Page iii
FASTTRACK TO SUCCESS
FINANCE
A01_BONH1789_01_SE_FM.QXD:Layout 1 16/3/09 15:45 Page iv
Inanincreasinglycompetitiveworld,webelieveit’squalityof
thinkingthatgivesyoutheedge–anideathatopensnew
doors,atechniquethatsolvesaproblemoraninsightthat
simplymakessenseofitall.Themoreyouknow,thesmarter
andfasteryoucango.
That’swhyweworkwiththebestmindsinbusinessandfinance
tobringcutting-edgethinkingandbestlearningpracticeto
aglobalmarket.
Underarangeofleadingimprints,includingFinancialTimes
PrenticeHall,wecreateworld-classprintpublicationsand
electronicproductsbringingourreadersknowledge,skillsand
understanding,whichcanbeappliedwhetherstudyingoratwork.
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FASTTRACK TO SUCCESS
FINANCE
ALANBONHAMANDKENLANGDON
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PEARSONEDUCATIONLIMITED
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FirstpublishedinGreatBritainin2009
©PearsonEducationLimited2009
TherightsofAlanBonhamandKenLangdontobeidentifiedasauthorsofthiswork
havebeenassertedbytheminaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatents
Act1988.
ISBN:978-0-273-72178-9
BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Bonham,Alan.
Finance/AlanBonhamandKenLangdon.
p.cm.--(Fasttracktosuccess)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-273-72178-9(pbk.:alk.paper)1.Finance. I.Langdon,Ken.II.Title.III.
Title:Fasttracktosuccess:finance.
HG173.B6362009
658.15--dc22
2009006236
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,
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CONTENTS
TheFastTrackway ix
Abouttheauthors xii
Awordofthanksfromtheauthors xiii
FinanceFastTrack xv
Howtousethisbook xix
Fast-Track-Me.comxx
A AWARENESS 1
1 Financeinanutshell 5
2 Financeaudit 27
B BUSINESSFAST TRACK 37
3 FastTracktopten 41
4 Technologies 85
5 Implementingchange 101
C CAREERFAST TRACK 115
6 Thefirsttenweeks 119
7 Leadingtheteam 133
8 Gettingtothetop 147
D DIRECTOR’STOOLKIT159
T1 Teamfinanceaudit 163
T2 Financialratioanalysis 167
T3 Paretoprofiling 177
T4 Riskanalysis 179
TheFastTrackway 181
OthertitlesintheFastTrackseries 183
Glossary 184
Index 188
vii
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THE FAST TRACK WAY
Everythingyouneedtoaccelerate
yourcareer
The best way to fast track your career as a manager is to fast track the
contribution you and your team make to your organisation and for your
team to be successful in as public a way as possible. That’s what the
FastTrackseriesisabout. TheFastTrackmanager deliversagainstper-
formance expectations, is personally highly effective and efficient,
develops the full potential of their team, is recognised as a key opinion
leader in the business, and ultimately progresses up the organisation
aheadoftheirpeers.
You will benefit from the books in the Fast Track series whether you
are an ambitious first-time team leader or a more experienced manager
who is keen to develop further over the next few years. You may be a
specialist aiming to master every aspect of your chosen discipline or
function, or simply be trying to broaden your awareness of other key
managementdisciplinesandskills.Ineithercase,youwillhavethemoti-
vation to critically review yourself and your team using the tools and
techniquespresentedinthisbook,aswellasthetimetostop,thinkand
actonareasyouidentifyforimprovement.
Do you know what you need to know and do to make a real differ-
ence to your performance at work, your contribution to your company
and your blossoming career? For most of us, the honest answer is ‘Not
really, no’. It’s not surprising then that most of us never reach our full
potential. The innovative Fast Track series gives you exactly what you
need to speed up your progress and become a high performance
ix