The best book in print on simplified finance!

OK, maybe those weren’t words from an independent source exactly. But my book is still a best seller for good reason. Finance for Non-Financial Managers, published by McGraw-Hill, is truly finance in plain English for those who are averse to learning about finance and accounting reports and all that stuff. It’s used in classrooms and corporate offices, by big company executives and startup entrepreneurs. Why this book? Because you can understand it!

And if you buy it from us you also get the right to email me any questions that come up in your reading. And I’ll sign it for you besides. Is that a blatant pitch for your money? Yup! Go to http://www.amazon.com/Finance-Non-Financial-Managers-Briefcase-Books/dp/0071413774/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213433046&sr=8-1 on Amazon.com and read the many reviews from delighted readers. Then you can either buy the book from Amazon for a few dollars off the cover price, or come to us and get the autographed book and the email rights for $14.95 plus shipping. It’s a steal! Go to http://www.executivefinancecoach.com/finance_book.html and get yours while they last. OK, that last part is puffery. We’ve got lots of them. But they’re not helping you while they’re sitting on our shelf. Use your PayPal account or your credit card and get your copy now.

Procurement software? Bah, Humbug!

The Wall Street Journal carried an article this week discussing web spending tools, that is to say software that helps businesses control costs by telling them where they’re spending their money. It’s called procurement software and it sells for big bucks to big companies. Most companies are not big companies, and most of them can get the same results by learning how to read their own financial reports, IF they also learn how to ask for the information they don’t see in the standard forms their software spits out every month.

Too many managers are frustrated because they don’t see what they need or they don’t understand what they see and they don’t know what to do about it. They don’t understand what is possible and reasonable to expect from their financial departments, so they accept that it’s a different language and they lower their expectations. With all due respect to their skills, I call this Financial Illiteracy.

Some of the most creative CEOs I’ve known keep numbers on the back of an envelope – or the equivalent – because it’s the only think they understand. How sad is that? If you know anyone in that state of affairs, do them a huge favor. Tell them to call me.

As always, I welcome your comments.