The risk process commonly used in the corporate world to deal with risks may be suitable for non-catastrophic events, but not for extreme events. By analyzing a series of past disasters and the relevant 'lessons learned', this books proposes a series of prescriptive measures to cope with future disasters.

The Handbook is a virtual encyclopedia of public financial management, written by topmost experts, many with a background in the IMF and World Bank. It provides the first comprehensive guide to the subject that has been published in more than ten years. The book is aimed at a broad audience of academics/students, government officials, development agencies and practitioners. It covers both bread-and-butter topics such as the macroeconomic and legal framework for budgeting, budget preparation and execution, procurement, accounting, reporting, audit and oversight, as well as specialist subjects such as government payroll systems, local government finance, fiscal transparency, the management of fiscal risks, sovereign wealth funds, the management of state-owned enterprises, and political economy aspects of budgeting. The book sets out numerous examples and case studies describing good practice in public financial management, and is highly relevant for use in both advanced and developing countries.

This is the book for anyone who wants to know what really lies behind the scandals and disasters of global business that have marred the first few years of the twenty-first century. This book is not about stock market "bubbles." Nor is it about accounting scandals and craven auditors. Rather, it examines why companies fail. The authors postulate that the reasons companies fail are few, and all too common. Detailed studies of eight of the most famous recent failures identify six main causes: poor strategic decisions; over-expansion and ill-judged acquisitions; dominant CEOs; greed, hubris and a desire for power; failure of internal controls, and ineffective boards. The authors also set out what the prudent investor, board member or manager should be alert to but often is not.

The analysis of investment decisions today draws upon a wide range of sources, from economics and finance to engineering economy and operations research. Dr. Beenhakker's book reflects this interdisciplinary approach, and without assuming prior knowledge of these fields or a sophisticated understanding of mathematics, provides professionals and upper-level students with the concepts and tools they need to make englightened investments in new ventures. Arranged to permit rapid review of an entire investment subject and written in a modular manner to allow readers to jump among chapters without losing their bearings, the book will help business managers deal intelligently with corporate financial and economic issues and government contracts. It will also help planners of the public sector incorporate the views of private industry in their own investment decision making. A unique, readable, comprehensive treatment for investment professionals and also for academics and their graduate-level students.

The analysis of investment decisions today draws upon a wide range of sources, from economics and finance to engineering economy and operations research. Dr. Beenhakker's book reflects this interdisciplinary approach, and without assuming prior knowledge of these fields or a sophisticated understanding of mathematics, provides professionals and upper-level students with the concepts and tools they need to make enlightened investments in new ventures. Arranged to permit rapid review of an entire investment subject and written in a modular manner to allow readers to jump among chapters without losing their bearings, the book will help business managers deal intelligently with corporate financial and economic issues and government contracts. It will also help planners of the public sector incorporate the views of private industry in their own investment decision making. A unique, readable, comprehensive treatment for investment professionals and also for academics and their graduate-level students.

Dr. Beenhakker begins with a study of financial statements and ratios, and covers annual reports, balance sheets, income and retained earnings statements, cash flow statements, and financial ratios. In Chapter 2 he looks at the valuation and investment problems when shares are under- or overvalued. He moves then to derivative securities, and in Chapter 4 to a discussion of diversification planning. In Chapter 5 he takes up the cost of capital, with special attention to risk, uncertainty, and certainty, and in Chapter 6 covers that and other topics in the context of project appraisal. Chapter 7 digs into programming and planning and covers topics such as the marginal cost of capital in capital budgeting, the optimal capital budget, capital rationing, and economic development plans. The book ends with a discussion of cost minimization problems, such as leasing and purchasing, replacement investments, expansion investments, decision trees, and the problem of how to ship quantities from supply to demand centers such that the total cost of transport is minimized. Five appendices provide readers with various tables and formulas to assist in their own calculations.

Contains the full text of the Budget Message of the President, information on the President's priorities and budget overviews by agency, and summary tables.

Engineering solutions and financial decisions are intimately tied together. The best engineers combine the technical and financial cases in determining new solutions to opportunities, challenges and problems. In order to get a project approved, no matter its size, the financials must be clear and compelling. To have an impact on the companya (TM)s performance, a practising engineer must learn to argue the business case as part of the technical solution.

Finance for Engineers: Evaluation and Funding of Capital Projects provides a framework for engineers and scientists to undertake financial evaluations and assessments of engineering or production projects. The material covered enables the reader to understand how the economics of a technical project affects the finances of the company. The integration of the technical and financial decision-making is demonstrated through case studies and examples relevant to the practising engineer. The book equips engineers and scientists with the tools to contribute positively to the financial and strategic decisions within the organization.

This book investigates how businesses can adapt their executive and fiscal practices to adopt an ethical, equal-opportunity approach. The authors demonstrate how corporations can create sustainable work environments that embrace feminist care ethics and ground their research in a strong theoretical discussion of this relatively new framework. The discussion has a multidisciplinary outlook and explores how the concept of care ethics might be successfully applied to various professional contexts. Later chapters present findings from an empirical case study conducted in Australia and use both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse the potential power of a feminist care of ethics approach within commercial and corporate management.

Economic studies which examine the financing patterns of firms, particularly in emerging markets, seldom consider the market environment in which they operate. The most recent Asian financial crisis and its exposure of institutional failures in the context of financial sector liberalization show that these market conditions are vital. The positive relationship between a firm's excess cash flow and investment are well known, but the environment which determines retention of cash as opposed to paying dividends remains unresolved. The results of this survey suggest a framework by which future research in data collection, theoretical analysis, and empirical testing may be undertaken.

Risks are everywhere in the business world. "Mastering Risk Modelling" provides the busy financial manager with useful tips andpractical templates for assessing, applying and modelling risk and uncertainty in Excel. The book is designed specifically to be of help to you if you don't have time to start from scratch - it will improve your abilities in Excel and give you a library of basic examples that you can use as a basis for further development.

It covers:

- Review of model design

- Risk and uncertainty

- Credit risk

- Project finance

- Financial analysis

- Valuation

- Options

- Bonds

- Equities

- Value at risk

- Simulation

This second edition contains brand new chapters:

- Revised models

- More material on credit risk modelling e.g. portfolios, bankruptcy models

- Shows dual 2003/2007 Excel key strokes

- More theory especially on statistics in Excel

- Basic statistics in Excel - tools and methods

- Capacity to borrow and repay

- Finding optimum mix of risk and return

- Fixed income risk models

- Visual Basic approach

In today's rapidly changing and increasingly complex business world, successful risk management is the key to survival and success. Business leaders are increasingly facing different kinds of risk, from those traditionally associated with the market- project risks, competitive risks, and currency risks, to a set of new, more hazardous threats. Businesses in the Twenty-First century face a range of global risks. These are having an increasingly large impact on the activities of individual firms. While ten or fifteen years ago, risks flowing from civil unrest, climate change, terrorism or pandemics had a very limited effect on business, this is no longer the case. Risks beyond the control of the firm affect businesses more than ever before. Risk is the business of business, and the fundamental job of executives is to anticipate change and manage it on the basis of an opinion about the future. Those who don't take and manage risks properly lose ground and are eventually driven out.

Corporate Management in a Knowledge-Based Economy traces the evolution of corporate governance over time, with a particular focus on the changing nature of power. The control of scarce resources used in production materials, labour and capital has evolved considerably over the past centuries, with government, landowners, non-owner managers, and institutional investors acting as controlling powers at different points in time. In order to appropriately protect the various, and changing, stakeholders, the system of corporate governance has also developed over the years a process that continues to the present. In today's knowledge-based economy, with the rising importance of intangible assets, a new corporate management paradigm is needed. This book incorporates theoretical work as well as practical applications to analyse these developments and explore emerging trends of the 21st century. It examines how the pursuit of profit maximization has resulted in governance failures and it focuses on the prospective role of business ethics (once again in the spotlight following the credit crisis) in helping reform flawed governance structures. It argues that, in the long term, a system based on ethics can maximize social responsibility, customer satisfaction, human capital development and economic targets.

This book offers a comprehensive, easy to understand guide for startup entities and developing companies, providing insight on the various sources of funding that are available, how these funding sources are useful at each stage of a company's development, and offers a comprehensive intellectual property strategy that parallels each stage of development. The IP strategies offered in this book take into consideration the goals that most startups and companies have at each stage of development, as well as the limitations that exist at each stage (i.e., limited available resources earmarked for intellectual property asset development), and provides solutions that startups and companies can implement to maximize their return on intellectual property investments. This book also includes a number of descriptive examples, case studies and scenarios to illustrate the topics discussed, and is intended for use by startups and companies across all industries. Readers will garner an appreciation for the value that intellectual property rights provide to a startup entity or company and will gain an understanding of the types of intellectual property rights that are available to companies and how to procure, utilize and monetize those intellectual property rights to help their company grow.

The ideal bank or treasury department has a maximum return from effective balance sheet planning through the management of assets and liabilities. Due to the scale of treasury operations and stricter internal and external controls, this management has become increasingly complex. This comprehensive text will therefore serve to guide the financial aspects of asset/liability management such as requirement for capital adequacy through to discussion of duration and gap management. The text is aimed at those involved in plotting long term strategy for major institutions and will provide an invaluable reference source for Chairman, Chief Executives and those involved in portfolio management and the implementation of management information systems. Contributions are from major institutions involved in ALCO work and include; Price Waterhouse, Abbey National, Bank of England, Chase Manhattan, First Chicago and Smith New Court.

Interpreting Company Reports and Accounts guides the reader through the conventions and complexities of company accounts, explaining how to assess the financial and trading position of a company from year to year, how to spot undue risk taking and ‘‘cosmetic accounting’’ and where to look for clues on the quality of management. 

Packed with interesting real world examples, this is a highly practical book which shows readers how to analyse company reports and accounts, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The analysis is illustrated with over 200 extracts/examples from published accounts

We are all faced with projects going off the rails, veering far from what we initially set out to do, costing ten times as much and taking far too long to complete - this is just part of everyday working life. Honing our general skills in project management seems like the obvious answer, but Fast Projects promises a quicker and easier solution - cutting the time to get projects done in the first place. Learning to operate within a short schedule not only cuts costs and improves revenue and cash flow, but it also sets you aside as a sharper and slicker operation. How to build, shorten and execute a realistic plan in the shortest time possible is covered in detail along with a specific focus on ensuring you have clearly defined goals and are making accurate project predictions with a successful tracking progress. Using worked examples and tried and tested techniques, Fast Projects is your practical guide to ensuring projects not only succeed, but are delivered early. If you want to get the most out of your team and take control of your workload, resources and time, this book is for you.

Comprehensive and edited by leading names, this book takes a critical and discursive approach to the various forms and contexts of fundraising. Fundraising is a maturing profession, but one that is becoming increasingly controversial. Media reports of poor practice have contributed to concerns about the integrity of fundraisers and the uses which have been made of the resources they raise. As a result, a consensus now exists among senior figures in the industry about the changes that are required. Technique is no longer enough. Many more of the next generation of practitioners must be capable of considered reflection, organizational and inter-organizational strategic thinking and value-based leadership. Exploring new developments taking place in the area of fundraising, the specially commissioned articles, by experts in the field move the thinking in the profession beyond its familiar formulae and assumptions, opening up critical debate about the nature, contribution and limitations of fundraising. This volume is essential reading for anyone who aspires to work at senior levels in fundraising or is currently engaged in studying this challenging area.

Expected utility provides simple, testable properties of the optimum behavior that should be displayed by risk-averse individuals in risky decisions. Simultaneously, given the existence of paradoxes under the expected utility paradigm, expected utility can only be regarded as an approximation of actual behavior. A more realistic model is needed. This is particularly true when treating attitudes toward small probability events: the standard situation for insurable risks. Non-Expected Utility and Risk Management examines whether the existing results in insurance economics are robust to more general models of behavior under risk.

Local governments are hard-pressed to balance their budgets in the 1990s. Part of any budget-balancing effort is accurate forecasting. In this new work, Howard Frank introduces time-tested forecasting techniques from the private sector and military in a local forecasting environment. In a lucid, user-friendly treatment, Frank shows how simple and complex methods can be put to use in the contemporary local government setting. Through examples--many of them from his own research--the author delineates the strengths and weaknesses of quantitative and non-quantitative forecasting methods. Frank also shows how these techniques can be used to monitor changes in public programs--an increasingly important part of contemporary budget execution.

Frank does not assume an extensive mathematical or statistical background on the part of the reader--indeed, a forecast neophyte will have no difficulty understanding the text. Questions at the end of each chapter focus the reader on the major concepts and provide insights on practical applications within the urban setting. A cornerstone of the work is that local forecasters must be intelligent experimenters with the new tools--there is no canned advice that applies to all cities and forecast situations. But with application of forecasting approaches treated in this unique work, local budgeters--and those in training to become budgeters--will be able to adopt forecasting approaches that have been underutilized in local government.

The complete guide to the principles and practice of risk quantification for business applications. The assessment and quantification of risk provide an indispensable part of robust decision-making; to be effective, many professionals need a firm grasp of both the fundamental concepts and of the tools of the trade. Business Risk and Simulation Modelling in Practice is a comprehensive, in depth, and practical guide that aims to help business risk managers, modelling analysts and general management to understand, conduct and use quantitative risk assessment and uncertainty modelling in their own situations. Key content areas include: * Detailed descriptions of risk assessment processes, their objectives and uses, possible approaches to risk quantification, and their associated decision-benefits and organisational challenges. * Principles and techniques in the design of risk models, including the similarities and differences with traditional financial models, and the enhancements that risk modelling can provide. * In depth coverage of the principles and concepts in simulation methods, the statistical measurement of risk, the use and selection of probability distributions, the creation of dependency relationships, the alignment of risk modelling activities with general risk assessment processes, and a range of Excel modelling techniques. * The implementation of simulation techniques using both Excel/VBA macros and the @RISK Excel add-in. Each platform may be appropriate depending on the context, whereas the core modelling concepts and risk assessment contexts are largely the same in each case. Some additional features and key benefits of using @RISK are also covered. Business Risk and Simulation Modelling in Practice reflects the author s many years in training and consultancy in these areas. It provides clear and complete guidance, enhanced with an expert perspective. It uses approximately one hundred practical and real-life models to demonstrate all key concepts and techniques; these are accessible on the companion website.

In the knowledge economy, the value of corporations is directly related to their knowledge and intellectual capital. But broaden the perspective a little wider and you begin to see the possibilities: Think of cities, regions, even entire nations, in addition to the public sector. If intangibles and intellectual capital are important to the private sector, they are also important to the productivity and competitiveness of the public sector, and so to communities and nations as a whole. In this book, Editors Ahmed Bounfour and Leif Edivinsson have brought together the best minds in intellectual capital throughout the world to focus on a new and fertile area of research: measuring and managing the intellectual capital of communities. This is a creative and cutting-edge area of research that has the potential to change how public sector planning and development is done. Once there is a clear way to identify where wealth is created in a given region/nation, this process has the potential to reveal a huge knowledge repository in the public sector with a significant but idle potential for collective wealth creation the wealth of nations in waiting.

As stakeholder relationships and business in general have become increasingly central to the unfolding of stakeholder thinking, important new topics have begun to take centre stage in both the worlds of practitioners and academics. The role of project management becomes immeasurably more challenging, when stakeholders are no longer seen as simple objects of managerial action but rather as subjects with their own objectives and purposes. This book will aim to explain some of the complexities of project management and managerial relationships with stakeholders by discussing the practice of stakeholder engagement, dialog, measurement and management and the consequences of this practice for reporting and productivity, and performance within project management.

Purchasing and Financial Management of Information Technology aims to significantly reduce the amount of money wasted on IT by providing readers with a comprehensive guide to all aspects of planning, managing and controlling IT purchasing and finance. Starting from a recognition that IT purchasing and the financial management often needs to be treated differently from other types of expenditure, the author draws on over 25 years of experience in the field to provide readers with useful mixture of good procedures and common sense rules that have been tried, tested and found to work. Many of these are illustrated by case histories, each with a moral or a lesson. Purchasing and Financial Management of Information Technology provides useful guidelines and advice on whole range of topics including: * IT acquisitions policy * Dealing with suppliers * Budgeting and cost control * IT cost and risk management * Specification, selection and evaluation of systems * IT value for money

In recent years developments in information and communication technology, along with globalisation and trade liberalisation, have brought about a revolution in the capital markets. Always highly sensitive to global corporate trends, the asset management industry has been subject to huge changes in recent years.

This book discusses the changing nature of asset management and the implications for investors. It is based on extensive research and interviews with a large number of distinguished practitioners in the industry.

The issue of how technology has impacted on asset management is discussed and how, with the growth of the industry, more individuals are exercising control over their investments than ever before. Insightful and comprehensive, this book is a must for anyone involved in the management of money.