Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 1
Icons Used in This Book 2
Beyond the Book 2
Where to Go from Here 3
Book 1: Accounting 5
Chapter 1: Introducing Financial Statements 7
Setting the Stage for Financial Statements 8
Income Statement 10
Balance Sheet 13
Statement of Cash Flows 17
A Note about the Statement of Changes in Shareowners’ Equity 20
Gleaning Important Information from Financial Statements 20
Keeping in Compliance with Accounting and Financial Reporting Standards 24
Chapter 2: Reporting Profit or Loss in the Income Statement 31
Presenting Typical Income Statements 32
Taking Care of Housekeeping Details 36
Being an Active Reader 38
Deconstructing Profit 40
Pinpointing the Assets and Liabilities Used to Record Revenue and Expenses 45
Reporting Unusual Gains and Losses 51
Watching for Misconceptions and Misleading Reports 53
Chapter 3: Reporting Financial Condition in the Balance Sheet 55
Expanding the Accounting Equation 56
Presenting a Proper Balance Sheet 57
Judging Liquidity and Solvency 61
Understanding That Transactions Drive the Balance Sheet 64
Sizing Up Assets and Liabilities 68
Financing a Business: Sources of Cash and Capital 74
Recognizing the Hodgepodge of Values Reported in a Balance Sheet 77
Chapter 4: Reporting Cash Sources and Uses in the Statement of Cash Flows 79
Meeting the Statement of Cash Flows 80
Explaining the Variance between Cash Flow and Net Income 84
Sailing through the Rest of the Statement of Cash Flows 90
Pinning Down Free Cash Flow 94
Limitations of the Statement of Cash Flows 95
Chapter 5: Reading a Financial Report 97
Knowing the Rules of the Game 98
Making Investment Choices 99
Contrasting Reading Financial Reports of Private versus
Public Businesses 101
Using Ratios to Digest Financial Statements 102
Frolicking through the Footnotes 117
Checking Out the Auditor’s Report 118
Book 2: Operations Management 123
Chapter 1: Designing Processes to Meet Goals 125
Getting Started with Process Improvement 126
Planning Operations 126
Improving Processes According to a Goal 129
Managing Bottlenecks 137
Chapter 2: Planning for Successful Operations 141
Planning from the Top Down 142
Exploring the Components of an Aggregate Plan 145
Considering Materials 148
Planning for Services 152
Applying Information to the Entire Organization 154
Chapter 3: Creating a Quality Organization 157
Reaching Beyond Traditional Improvement Programs 158
Adding to the Tool Box 161
Overcoming Obstacles 172
Book 3: Decision-Making 175
Chapter 1: The Key Ingredients for Effective Decisions 177
Distinguishing the Different Kinds of Decisions 177
Identifying the Different Decision-Making Styles 179
Recognizing the Workplace Environment and Culture as a Force 180
Developing the Decision-Maker: To Grow or Not? 188
Chapter 2: Walking through the Decision-Making Process 191
Clarifying the Purpose of the Decision 192
Eliciting All Relevant Info 193
Sifting and Sorting Data: Analysis 198
Generating Options 205
Assessing Immediate and Future Risk 209
Mapping the Consequences: Knowing Who Is Affected and How 211
Making the Decision 212
Communicating the Decision Effectively 213
Implementing the Decision 214
Decision-Making on Auto-Pilot 218
Chapter 3: Becoming a More Effective Decision-Maker 223
Upping Your Game: Transitioning from Area-Specific to Strategic Decisions 224
Displaying Character through Decision-Making 231
Improving Your Decision-Making by Becoming a Better Leader 235
Creating Safe and Stable Workplaces 238
Book 4: Project Management 243
Chapter 1: Achieving Results 245
Determining What Makes a Project a Project 245
Defining Project Management 250
Knowing the Project Manager’s Role 257
Do You Have What It Takes to Be an Effective Project Manager? 261
Chapter 2: Knowing Your Project’s Audiences 263
Understanding Your Project’s Audiences 264
Developing an Audience List 264
Considering the Drivers, Supporters, and Observers 272
Displaying Your Audience List 278
Confirming Your Audience’s Authority 279
Assessing Your Audience’s Power and Interest 281
Chapter 3: Clarifying Your Project 283
Defining Your Project with a Scope Statement 283
Looking at the Big Picture: Explaining the Need for Your Project 286
Marking Boundaries: Project Constraints 302
Documenting Your Assumptions 305
Presenting Your Scope Statement 306
Chapter 4: Developing a Game Plan 309
Breaking Your Project into Manageable Chunks 309
Creating and Displaying a WBS 322
Identifying Risks While Detailing Your Work 332
Documenting Your Planned Project Work 334
Chapter 5: Keeping Everyone Informed 335
Successful Communication Basics 336
Choosing the Appropriate Medium for Project Communication 340
Preparing a Written Project-Progress Report 345
Holding Key Project Meetings 351
Preparing a Project Communications Management Plan 353
Book 5: Linkedin 355
Chapter 1: Looking into LinkedIn 357
Understanding Your New Contact Management and
Networking Toolkit 358
Discovering What You Can Do with LinkedIn 363
Understanding LinkedIn Costs and Benefits 367
Navigating LinkedIn 373
Chapter 2: Signing Up and Creating Your Account 377
Joining LinkedIn 377
Starting to Build Your Network 388
Chapter 3: Growing Your Network 391
Building a Meaningful Network 392
Sending Connection Requests 405
Accepting (or Gracefully Declining) Invitations 412
Chapter 4: Exploring the Power of Recommendations 415
Understanding Recommendations 416
Writing Recommendations 418
Requesting Recommendations 422
Gracefully Declining a Recommendation (or a Request for One) 425
Managing Recommendations 426
Chapter 5: Finding Employees 431
Managing Your Job Listings 432
Screening Candidates with LinkedIn 442
Using Strategies to Find Active or Passive Job Seekers 444
Book 6: Business Writing 445
Chapter 1: Planning Your Message 447
Adopting the Plan-Draft-Edit Principle 447
Fine-Tuning Your Plan: Your Goals and Audience 448
Making People Care 457
Choosing Your Written Voice: Tone 461
Using Relationship-Building Techniques 465
Chapter 2: Making Your Writing Work 469
Stepping into a Twenty-First-Century Writing Style 469
Enlivening Your Language 478
Using Reader-Friendly Graphic Techniques 485
Chapter 3: Improving Your Work 491
Changing Hats: Going from Writer to Editor 491
Reviewing the Big and Small Pictures 495
Moving from Passive to Active 505
Sidestepping Jargon, Cliches, and Extra Modifiers 508
Chapter 4: Troubleshooting Your Writing 513
Organizing Your Document 513
Catching Common Mistakes 521
Reviewing and Proofreading: The Final Check 529
Chapter 5: Writing Emails That Get Results 535
Fast-Forwarding Your Agenda In-House and Out-of-House 536
Getting Off to a Great Start 538
Building Messages That Achieve Your Goals 542
Structuring Your Middle Ground 548
Closing Strong 550
Perfecting Your Writing for Email 551
Book 7: Digital Marketing 557
Chapter 1: Understanding the Customer Journey 559
Creating a Customer Avatar 560
Getting Clear on the Value You Provide 566
Knowing the Stages of the Customer Journey 568
Preparing Your Customer Journey Road Map 575
Chapter 2: Crafting Winning Offers 577
Offering Value in Advance 578
Designing an Ungated Offer 579
Designing a Gated Offer 580
Designing Deep-Discount Offers 590
Maximizing Profit 595
Chapter 3: Pursuing Content Marketing Perfection 599
Knowing the Dynamics of Content Marketing 600
Finding Your Path to Perfect Content Marketing 601
Executing Perfect Content Marketing 614
Distributing Content to Attract an Audience 616
Chapter 4: Blogging for Business 621
Establishing a Blog Publishing Process 622
Applying Blog Headline Formulas 631
Auditing a Blog Post 634
Chapter 5: Following Up with Email Marketing 641
Understanding Marketing Emails 642
Sending Broadcast and Triggered Emails 644
Building a Promotional Calendar 646
Creating Email Campaigns 651
Writing and Designing Effective Emails 656
Cuing the Click 660
Getting More Clicks and Opens 660
Ensuring Email Deliverability 663
Index 667
