Business Research: Finding Industry Information

Includes 10 handy do's and don'ts of using management ratios. Business ratios are the guiding stars for the management of enterprises; they provide their targets and standards. They are helpful to managers in directing them towards the most beneficial long-term strategies as well as towards effective short-term decision-making.

The book's unique approach is to illustrate each valuation method with a case study of actual company performance.with more than 100 real case studies included, supplementing the sound theoretical framework and offering potential investors a methodology that can easily be applied in practice.

This book provides a step-by-step demonstration of how to download data from Internet sources, transfer the data to a spreadsheet, and conduct a financial ratio analysis of any company. The book outlines the steps needed to perform a financial ratio analysis, the financial statements to be retrieved from EDGAR, and the five categories of financial ratios used in the financial analysis of the company. The data retrieved from the financial statements is copied to a worksheet and used to compute and graph the financial ratios. The ratios and graphs are used to determine the performance drivers of this company.

This book uses a logical, top-down approach to unraveling the underlying story of the firm. It can be used by students and working executives who have a rudimentary prior idea of financial statements as well as familiarity with the very basic financial ratios. It is a myth that only executives in the finance function need to understand financial statements. Every decision within a firm has implications for the financial statements, and the need for such knowledge increases as one goes up the corporate ladder. The book is intended to be free flowing, with minimum jargon so as to be understood and appreciated especially by non-finance executives and students of business and management.