Best Practice Articles for Growing Private Companies

This web page provides links to over 100 short articles that bring you up to speed quickly on leading edge topics such as Leveraging Competitive Intelligence, Measuring Leadership, Using Appreciative Inquiry, and Elevating the HR Function.

Budgeting and Forecasting

Financial Forecasting Using Percent of Sales | Improving the Budgeting Process | Don't Forget to Use Expected Values in Your Forecasts | Considerations for Budgeting Software |

Capital Management

What is Your Cost of Capital | Calculating Weighted Average Cost of Capital | Capital Structure Analysis Using EBIT/EPS |

Cash Flow Management

Basic Cash Flow Management | Quick Tips for Improving Cash Flow | Cash Support for Sales Growth | Basic Accounts Receivable Management |

Change

Welcome to a World of Structural Change

Competitive Intelligence

The Importance of Competitive Intelligence | Collecting Competitive Intelligence the Easy Way | Competitive Intelligence: An International Perspective | Organizing the Competitive Intelligence Effort | Leveraging Competitive Intelligence

Controlling Costs

A Better Approach to Cost Control: ABC | Why Implement Activity Based Costing?

Decision Making

Major Pitfalls in the Decision Making Process | Key Elements to Effective Decision Making | Learning to Think | How to Brainstorm | To Blink or Not Blink | The Power of Crowdsourcing | BADIR: A Simple Approach to Analytics | Getting out of the Quantitative World

Economic Value Added

What is Economic Value Added? | Four Steps to Calculating EVA | Making EVA Work | The EVA Momentum Ratio

Financing

What are Effective Interest Rates? | The Cost of Financing Inventories | What is Operating Leverage? | What is Zero Working Capital | The IPO Process | Can Wall Street Learn Something from Islamic Finance

Investment Analysis

Basic Economics for Capital Budgeting Analysis | What is Internal Rate of Return | Using Discounted Payback | Using Decision Trees | Why More Companies Should Consider OpEx over CapEx

Human Resource Management

Metrics for Human Resource Management | Cross Functional Teams | What is Matrix Management | Measuring Returns on HR Capital | The 360 Degree Evaluation Process | Reintroducing the Human Factor | Performance through People | The Smart Organization - Part 1 | The Smart Organization - Part 2 | Humanizing the Financial Mindset | Elevating the HR Function - Part 1 | Elevating the HR Function - Part 2 | What People Need are Coaches - Part 1 | What People Need are Coaches - Part 2 | Neuro Linguistic Programming - Part 1 | Neuro Linguistic Programming - Part 2 | The ABC's of Competency Models | Motivation as a Value Driver | Why Games Belong in the Workplace | Science Explains Creativity | Want a Superior Workforce? Hire Women | Three Frameworks for Higher Productivity | Why Link Pay to Performance | The Three Most Important Skills | Is this Person Right for Your Company

Intellectual Capital

Global Economics and Intellectual Capital | Recognizing Intellectual Capital | What is Intellectual Capital | Start Measuring Intellectual Capital | Putting Emphasis on Knowledge Assets

Marketing

In Pursuit of the Micro Moment | SEO: An Inconvenient Truth

Organizational Development

Turnarounds for Distressed Companies | Strategic Planning: First Step in the Balanced Scorecard | The Importance of Knowledge Management | SWOT Analysis the Baldrige Way | Let's Define Best Practices | Elements of Sustainability | The Art of Game Theory | Appreciating 'Appreciative Inquiry' - Part 1 | Appreciating 'Appreciative Inquiry' - Part 2 | Is Knowledge Really Power? | Creating Creativity - Part 1 | Creating Creativity - Part 2 | The Challenges of Becoming Customer Focused | Managing Complexity | Two is Better Than One

Performance Measurement

Basic Foundation Behind a Performance Measurement System | Design Steps in Building a Performance System | What are Critical Success Factors | Examples of Key Performance Indicators | Matching Financial Metrics with Strategies and Cycles | The Balanced Scorecard: Measuring Real Sources of Value | The Power of the Scorecard | Balanced Scorecard's for NonProfits and NGO's | Basics of Benchmarking | Integrated Performance Measurement | Balancing the Balanced Scorecard | The E2K Metric | It's Time to Start Measuring Leadership | Do You Know Your Vital Few | Everyone Should Have a Dashboard

Process Improvement

Improve Accounts Payables with P Cards | Reaching for the Six Sigma | Value through the Supply Chain | Focusing on the Process - Part 1 | Focusing on the Process - Part 2 | Avoiding Six Sigma Sickness |

Project Management

| Five Common Challenges to Managing Projects | Completing a Feasibility Study |

Ratio Analysis

Cash Flow Ratios | Accounts Receivable Ratio Analysis | Asset Ratio Analysis | Accounts Payable Ratio Analysis | Managing Return on Equity | Profitability Ratios | Operating Cost Ratios | Measuring Sustainable Growth | Using Z Score to Assess Bankruptcies

Risk Management

Step 1 in Risk Management: Take a Profile | Step 2 in Risk Management: Categorize Your Risk | Using Insurance to Manage Risk | Managing Foreign Exchange Rate Risk | Countering Black Swans

Start Ups

| Find Your Aggregation Points | Keep on Bootstrapping | Understanding Your Value Proposition | How to Use the Minimum Viable Product | How to Capture Useful Feedback | Why Customer Retention is so Important to Growth | Lessons from the Shared Economy | Hand Shakes vs. Lawyers | Embracing UX Design

Technology

What is a Data Warehouse? | eFinance Part 1: Basic Concepts | eFinance Part 2: Key Components | The XBRL Revolution | Comprehending the IT Challenge | Leveraging Knowledge Management | Is Web Services the Next Big Thing? | Start Thinking in Nano's | Welcome to the World of Complex Adaptive Systems | Cyber Security 101 | Machines of Loving Grace | Do You Know Your Algorithms

Value Based Management

Valuations of Mergers and Acquisitions | Underlying Sources of Value: Innovation and Speed | Lease Valuations | Focus on Free Cash Flow, Not EBITDA | Valuation of Customers - Part 1 | Valuation of Customers - Part 2 | Lessons from the Entrepreneur - Part 1 | Lessons from the Entrepreneur - Part 2 | Lessons from the Entrepreneur - Part 3 | Intangibles over Tangibles | The VDF Tool | From Shareholder Value to Stakeholder Value | Value through Strategy | Value through Innovation | Value through Ethical Behavior | Value through Leadership | Value through Marketing | Value through Information | How Small Companies Can Think Big | The Death of EBITDA | The Financial Argument for Great Design | A Better Way to Grow | The New Math for Pricing