Financial Management – Theory & Practice – 14th Edition

Book Preface

When we wrote the first edition of Financial Management: Theory and Practice, we had four goals: (1) to create a text that would help students make better financial decisions; (2) to provide a book that could be used in the introductory MBA course, but one that was complete enough for use as a reference text in follow-on case courses and after graduation; (3) to motivate students by demonstrating that finance is both interesting and relevant; and (4) to make the book clear enough so that students could go through the material without wasting either their time or their professors’ time trying to figure out what we were saying.

The collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market, the financial crisis, and the global economic crisis make it more important than ever for students and managers to understand the role that finance plays in a global economy, in their own companies, and in their own lives. So in addition to the four goals listed above, this edition has a fifth goal, to prepare students for a changed world.

INTRINSIC VALUATION AS A UNIFYING THEME

Our emphasis throughout the book is on the actions that a manager can and should take to increase the intrinsic value of the firm. Structuring the book around intrinsic valuation enhances continuity and helps students see how various topics are related to one another.

As its title indicates, this book combines theory and practical applications. An understanding of finance theory is essential for anyone developing and/or implementing effective financial strategies. But theory alone isn’t sufficient, so we provide numerous examples in the book and the accompanying Excel spreadsheets to illustrate how theory is applied in practice. Indeed, we believe that the ability to analyze financial problems using Excel also is essential for a student’s successful job search and subsequent career. Therefore, many exhibits in the book come directly from the accompanying Excel spreadsheets. Many of the spreadsheets also provide brief “tutorials” by way of detailed comments on Excel features that we have found to be especially useful, such as Goal Seek, Tables, and many financial functions.

The book begins with fundamental concepts, including background on the economic and financial environment, financial statements (with an emphasis on cash flows), the time value of money, bond valuation, risk analysis, and stock valuation. With this background, we go on to discuss how specific techniques and decision rules can be used to help maximize the value of the firm. This organization provides four important advantages:

1. Managers should try to maximize the intrinsic value of a firm, which is determined by cash flows as revealed in financial statements. Our early coverage of financial statements helps students see how particular financial decisions affect the various parts of the firm and the resulting cash flow. Also, financial statement analysis provides an excellent vehicle for illustrating the usefulness of spreadsheets.

2. Covering time value of money early helps students see how and why expected future cash flows determine the value of the firm. Also, it takes time for students to digest TVM concepts and to learn how to do the required calculations, so it is good to cover TVM concepts early and often.

3. Most students—even those who do not plan to major in finance—are interested in investments. The ability to learn is a function of individual interest and motivation, so Financial Management’s early coverage of securities and security markets is pedagogically sound.

4. Once basic concepts have been established, it is easier for students to understand both how and why corporations make specific decisions in the areas of capital budgeting, raising capital, working capital management, mergers, and the like.