Performance Dashboards and Analysis for Value Creation (Wiley Finance)

List Price: $70.00 Discount Price: $36.88

Customer Reviews:

Great Book for the Mid-Level Manager [Posted on 2007-01-31]
I am a mid level manager in a Fortune 500 company. I found Jack's book to be an excellent resource for understanding Value Creation and how to quantify Value Creation to non-finance people within the organization. Jack does a great job of explaining the concepts in an easy-to-read style. It's a "must read" for lower and mid level managers in today's business environment.

Great workbook for every management level [Posted on 2007-02-04]
I've used this book repeatedly since I purchased it a couple of months ago. It is both an excellent reference source and, more importantly, a mechanism for action for all managers that contribute to a company's performance.
The dashboard concept provides easily understood and asimilated performance data for every level of management. The book provides a step by step approach that if implemented corporate wide, must increase awareness and forms the platform for sustained value creation.
The spreadsheet examples on the attached disk are easy to customize to your own situation and take all the pain out of getting started.

A must read for public company functional managers [Posted on 2007-04-03]
Public Company CFO - I have made this a must read for each of my direct reports. This book takes what many have made overly complex and turns it into a real tool to use within the company in driving improved performance. Logically outlines the concepts in terms that are easily understood by both finance and non finance managers. The use of detailed examples, defining key terms and providing working/tailorable templates enables the reader to accelerate real value creation. For a public company it is a valuable enabler for the finance team and it allows functional managers to see the connections between their actions and building value for our shareholders

Great for Small Businesses too! [Posted on 2007-04-12]
As a CPA in Public Practice, I found that the "Value Performance Framework" laid out in Alexander's book very adaptable to the small business perspective. It's a very good read and I often refer back to it during my small business engagements.

How to link and then drive both performance and value [Posted on 2007-04-27]

All vehicles have dashboards and those manufactured in recent years have dashboards with gauges which measure more than engine temperature, miles driven, available fuel, etc. Those within the dashboard in my wife's Honda Pilot, for example, measure tire pressure, the temperature outside, and the current percentage of oil efficiency. It also has a built-in compass. I thought about all this as I recently read Wayne Eckerson's Performance Dashboards and Jack Alexander's Performance Dashboards and Analysis for Value Creation. If viewed as vehicles, all organizations need means by which to measure, accurately, performance at all levels and in all areas of operation. Burn rate is analogous with consumption of fuel, as are the costs of replacing customers and valued employees analogous with the costs of repairs necessitated by neglect of scheduled (preventive) vehicle maintenance. Comparisons can also be made in terms of alignment and torque. The performance of organizations as well as of vehicles can be measured accurately; only then is it possible to minimize or, better yet, eliminate waste of available resources.

In Performance Dashboards and Analysis for Value Creation, Alexander does a brilliant job of introducing and then explaining what he calls the "Value Performance Framework" (VPF) which will enable those who execute it effectively to link and then drive both performance and value. Within his crisp and eloquent narrative, he focuses on performance dashboards and Excel models which are included in a companion CD-ROM. They are identified in the book with a CD-RM logo. As Alexander explains, the dashboards and spreadsheets are intended as working examples for use after appropriate modification to each reader's own circumstances (i.e. resources, needs, and objectives). I hasten to add that the VPF can be of substantial value to any organization, whatever its size and nature may be.

After discussing "the single greatest challenge in creating an effective measurement system" in Chapter 1, Alexander carefully organizes his material as follows:

Part One (Chapters 2-4): Creating Context and Covering the Basics

Excerpt: "Typically, more can be learned by understanding why firms differ on key [valuation] measures than by selecting a peer group that shares common characteristics. A much richer picture is framed by comparing [and contrasting] your firm to market averages and several best-practice companies in addition to a peer group. Further, the use of a broad set of [valuation] measures, with appropriate benchmarks, would help to avoid the level of valuation errors that were made in the recent stock market bubble." (Page 58)

Part Two (Chapters 5-10): Linking Performance and Value

Excerpt: "There are hundreds of potential measures to choose from to measure different aspects of operating effectiveness. Great care must be exercised in selecting the measures that are most appropriate to a firm at a specific point in time. The performance dashboards must reflect key business priorities. The measures should be evaluated periodically and revised to reflect ever-changing priorities and conditions. It is also critical to provide balance to ensure that a focus on efficiency is not achieved at the expense of quality, customer satisfaction, or growth." (Page 142)

Part Three (Chapters 11-13): Driving Performance and Value

Excerpt: "The single most important factor for achieving success with a [Performance Measurement Framework] is to create context for the measurement system. This is achieved by creating linkage among strategy, performance management, process and quality initiatives, financial performance, and shareholder value. It is also critical to integrate and link operating measures to financial measures and then to shareholder value measures. The time spent in establishing this linkage will improve understanding and ultimately the effectiveness of the framework." (Page 232)

Those who share my high regard for this brilliant book are urged to check out the aforementioned Performance Dashboards written by Wayne Eckerson as well as Joseph Bower and Clark Gilbert's From Resource Allocation to Strategy, Jeanne Ross's Enterprise Architecture as Strategy, Henry Chesbrough's Open Business Models, Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement, and Ram Charan's Know-How.

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