dow-jones Books

I did not finish this book because it is written in a very academic and hard to grasp language. Authors, please make your sentences a little shorter and simpler, the book is very boring and verbose! However, I must give credit to the authors for including almost all of the tools one will need for analysis of financial statements.

I am not a CPA or Finance major. I am a physicist so the math is not intimidating. I have been investing as an amateur since retirement and this book gives solid and easily understood ways to get at the valuation of a company and its stock by investigating the financial statements. There is a good comprehensive case study at the end of the book, but I wish the authors would give more examples either within or at the end of each chapter.

I have bought every edition of this book, and it just keeps getting better and better. As a 25 year veteran of corporate finance, I continue to use this book myself on a regular basis and to recommend it to less experienced employees who are still developing their expertise. Every finance library should have this book.

I purchased this book to assist me with some finance and accounting courses. It was one of the best purchases I could have made. The book is clear, concise, and informative. It made understanding several of the concepts behind financial statement analysis much much simpler. It is certainly worth every bit of the cost.

Profit for Life shatters the old paradigm that success in business means sucking the life from people and natural resources by viewing both as dispensable commodities. By showing us how success in business--including big business--goes hand-in-hand with respect for human and natural communities, Bragdon frees us from the wrenching misconception that profit and citizenship represent a kind of zero-sum game.

Bragdon unites head and heart in one of the most uplifting books I have ever read. Profit for Life offers hope with a firm footing. I recommend Profit for Life to anyone with an interest in business management, strategic investment, or corporate citizenship.

Daniel D. Dutcher, J.D., Ph.D.
Project Director
The Clean Energy Group
Montpelier, Vermont

Book Review for Profit for Life: How Capitalism Excels
by Ann McGee-Cooper

How do you measure the value of servant leadership in business? How can we know it works? These have been two of the most frequently asked questions in our consulting practice over the past 30 years.

In Profit for Life, Jay Bragdon provides us with some compelling answers. He does this by setting aside much of the linear cause-and-effect thinking that drives business these days, and adopts a more rounded, holistic approach that gives us deeper insight into the firm.

The book is based on the experiences of 60 companies - Bragdon's "learning lab" - that broadly represent the industry/sector diversity of the world economy. Throughout the text he describes 16 of these pioneering companies, called the Focus Group. The distinguishing feature of all these firms is their effort to mimic living systems - in the ways they organize, manage and add value. This mental model is radically different from the traditional one that views the firm as a money making machine.

Although it may seem counter intuitive, the living system approach yields vastly superior results than the traditional one. For example, the average equity return of learning lab companies was nearly double the S&P 500 over the past decade; and their excess performance continues as this review is written. Bragdon expects such premium returns will diminish over time as the more effective methods of the living system model become copied and enter the mainstream. Nevertheless, these results are a strong affirmation of the milieu in which servant leadership normally operates.

Servant leadership, to Bragdon, is all about relationships. He says "relational equity" is the foundation on which companies build financial equity. When companies care about people and the things people care about, Employees become inspired and their inspiration cascades into everything they do, including their relationships with customers, suppliers and other key stakeholders.

The raison d'etre of these servant-led firms is value creation - value that permeates all relationships. Companies that excel at such value creation pursue a strategy Bragdon calls "living asset stewardship" (LAS). The fundamental premise of LAS is: Profit arises from life, and must therefore serve life if it is to be sustainable.

To understand the strategic value of living asset stewardship, Bragdon makes a critical distinction between living assets (people and Nature) and non-living capital assets (buildings, equipment and financial reserves). We see this in three contexts. First, people are closely bonded to Nature - genetically, physically and spiritually - in ways that capital assets are not. Second, living assets are the source of non-living capital assets. And third, because living assets are inherently creative and emergent, their value grows over time rather than depreciating as capital assets do.

The operating leverage in the learning lab and the 16 Focus Group companies resides in the human heart rather than in mechanistic financial gearing. This is supported by the fact that they generate consistently higher returns on equity while carrying substantially lower debt ratios.

Although traditionally managed companies have been adopting some stewardship practices in the past decade, Bragdon finds their approach differs fundamentally from those in his study. In the mechanistic view of these firms, stewardship is an add-on that is subservient to their drive for profit. By contrast, in companies that have adopted the living system model, LAS is deeply woven into the value creation process - reflecting the fact that they see themselves as "living" and therefore integral to, rather than separate from, Nature and society.

Profit for Life builds on the brilliant work of Arie deGeus, former coordinator of Group Planning at Royal Dutch/Shell, and Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson. DeGeus' classic, The Living Company, noted that long-lived companies had a collective consciousness, were sensitive to their environments, tried to work in harmony with the world around them, and strove to leave a legacy to future generations. Wilson tells us this collective consciousness is an expression of humanity's deep affinity for life, which he calls "biophilia," and that our biophilic instincts have evolved over thousands of generations of natural selection.

In my work as a teacher of servant leadership, I would highlight the paradigm shift Bragdon describes. The mission of leaders in LAS organizations is to serve and grow their people because that is the source of the firm's liveliness and capacity for growth. As Robert K. Greenleaf said: "The first order of business is to build a group of people who, under the influence of the institution, grow taller and become healthier, stronger and more autonomous." That seminal quote is used twice in the book to describe the power and generative capacity of LAS.

I highly recommend this book and will be using it regularly in our practice.

Ann McGee-Cooper, Ed.D., Business Consultant & Executive coach
in the field of Servant Leadership & growing Learning Organization.
Ann McGee-Cooper & Associates, Inc.

I intend to recommend Profit for Life to all my current MBA students. Next fall I am team teaching an MBA core course that combines Operations Management and Managerial Accounting. I intend to make the case that your book should be required reading and part of the course.

I became familiar with the work of W. Edwards Deming in 1990 and attended one of his four day seminars a year later. I also began to follow Peter Senge's work and later read Margaret Wheatley's book, Leadership and the New Science. Tom Johnson's book, Profit Beyond Measure, has been required reading in my Advanced Managerial Accounting elective at the MBA level.

Bragdon's book has brought the ideas, theories, and concepts discussed by these individuals together for me in a way that I could not have imagined. More importantly, he has not only taken their ideas to the next level, but done it in a way that provides a tangible blue print for how to change our current style of command and control management with its focus on profit maximization to a LAS Theory of Management.

The use of the sixteen focus companies from the LAMP INDEX and the author's ability ability to clearly show the distinctions in their style of management from the traditional management models that continue to be taught in almost all business schools, and the success these companies have achieved not just financially, gives those of us hoping to change management education and core business curriculums a new hope.

Thank you for such an outstanding book.

Joseph F. Castellano
Professor, Department of Accounting
University of Dayton Business School

This is not one of those lightweight business books that repeats its Chapter 1 message over and over. It's chock full of research-based information that anyone involved in the sustainability movement should have. The publisher is Peter Senge's non-profit, so if you're familiar with his excellent work over the years, this would make a great addition to your library. The author's passion for his subject is obvious from page one.

Bruce Babcock's book is spectacular. It cuts through all the nonsense in futures trading and reveals what is essential to surviving. Mr. Babcock provides lucid and honest evaluations of popular trading systems. The chapter on optimization is extremely useful. Wonderful book!! Far superior to most of the trash out there.

Published in 1989 ! A great guide to trading systems. Recommended !

Very readable, witty and entertaining. Much of the concepts emphasized in the book are essentials of trading. Whilst alot may be now accepted as common knowledge, there remains an enduring quality to this book. Some of the stuff will undoubtedly be very dated (such as references to software etc.). Other issues have remained unresolved (to optimize or not, and how much to optimize). Still other aspects will always be relevant. Personally, I think many traders, at any level will enjoy reading this book, which must be regarded as a classic.

Buying a house without reading this book first would be the biggest mistake that you will ever make. This book resides on the top shelf of my bookcase where it has remained for seven years. There are his & hers bookmarks and twenty plus folded corners in my copy. The wife let someone borrow it once, for ONE day (never again!). Now we are looking for a new house and this book is just as valuable today as it was many years ago.

Several years ago this was the best single book about home buying which I could find. It covers financing options, renting vs. buying, new homes vs. old, maintenance and replacement, the buying process, things to look for when inspecting property, remodeling, etc. Currently out-of-print, but still an excellent reference. Most of he material is still relevant to today's home buyers.

This is the best book I have ever seen on diamonds, gemstones and jewelry. I contains excellent information on what to look for in each category of gemstones. It also contains great photo examples of properly cut stones and common problem areas. It explains the independent lab grading process and shows how to read the grading reports.

One of the best books ever written if you are interested in collecting or investing in diamonds and colored gemstones. Discusses basic gemology, an analysis of the most commonly traded gemstones, colored gemstone and diamond grading with laboratory grading reports, gemstone treatments, pricing cycles, gemstone investing, gemstone markups and appraisals. Although this book is a little out of date, it is an excellent resource for beginners.

Folks around the Rogue River STILL talk about this guy. Some even do impersonations of him. Hathaway Jones could have been the Aesop and the Garrison Keillor of his time.

This book is a wonderful way to teach children how to use their imaginations with everyday things to create exciting stories. For adults, Hathaway's humor makes great reading next to the fireplace or around a campfire.

A note of thanks to Steven Dow Beckham for compiling these stories. Hathaway Jones was truly a remarkable man and it would have been a shame to have lost the wit and wisdom of this simple mail carrier.

Hathaway Jones was a rural mail carrier in at the turn of the century. He delivered "mail" and various mail order catalogue items from West Fork to homesteaders, miners et al along the Rogue River. He had lots of time to make up stories as he led his pack string of anywhere from two to 15 mules and horses. Most were stories on himself.

Tall Tale telling is an American tradition being recognized with swaps all over the country. It helps stir the imagination and the stories are great, especially when told around a campfire.

Also gives incentive to make up your own tall tales. Look around you and you'll see lots of stories just waiting to be told. This book provides the incentive to do just that.

This is a witty and sensitive discourse of the metric system of measurements, it's impact on non-metric societies and the conversion tables used to translate one to the other.

I can only second--nay--third, dbsf's take on The Metric System. The passion! The fury! The measurements! Chapter 9, "Intercranial Volumetrics: The Dizzy Years" is worth the price of admission alone, although the included inflatable metre stick makes this an incredibly useful book. Don't miss it, unless you're hooked on Avoir du Pois.

This book is an incredible compodium of classic late sixties - early seventies cartoons that were published in the Pepper & Salt Column of the Wall Street Journal . Politically incorrect as should be expected for the era. Fly of Dust jacket reads: "...editor Charles Preston guides us through a rib-tickling tour of all aspects of our contemporary world. Freaked out commuters, male liberationists, sassy office-boys are but a few of the characters you will encounter." There's also a number of airhead female secretaries and submissive wives! Cartoons by Reg Hider, Leo Garel, Hageman, Huffine, Bo Brown, Eli Stein, Al Kaufman, Val, and Serrano among others. Reading this 320 page book is A thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining event. It's a great way to stroll down memory lane.

Professor Andrews knows his subject, has creative insights, and knows how to write. I found this modest-looking, 176-page book (the second edition, 1980 copyright) the most powerful book on corporate strategy that I've read. The author goes beyond mere theoretical models to focus on what solid corporate strategy should produce: effective, well-directed actions.

While a used copy of this book is hard to find, it is worth the search.

As a lawyer with an MBA and CFP I have read dozens of books on markets and investing. This is the best book anywhere on not only learning how to read the WSJ but on understanding the way markets work. It manages to explain often complex topics with layman's ease. It walks you through every part of the financial section of WSJ carefully, completely, and clearly. There are companies outthere that specialize in finding out of print books. Do yourself a favor and find this book, it is worth it. Or I can sell you my copy for $1000.