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(More customer reviews)As a university teacher of strategic corporate finance and optimal investment, I have watched the financial industry analytics transcend hand calculation with financial calculators to financial modeling with spreadsheet software. Depending on whether the financial specialty is in corporate or banking/brokerage, the job skills requirement can range from corporate cost control to optimal portfolio design. In watching the analytics development within the financial industry, I have repeatedly witnessed students with financial modeling skills obtain jobs that are typically reserved for specialists holding advanced degrees or having multiple years of experience.
My course design typically takes the form of a strategic analysis class in either corporate financial planning or investment issues. Optimal corporate financing affects optimal investments. Additionally, since my research interests are in international corporate finance, global finance themes surface in most lectures. In corporate finance, raising funds on favorable terms and then allocating those funds efficiently among various projects are decisions made by every company financial officer-in every country; in investment, fund managers face global choices. Thus, business is no longer exclusively domestic ventures. It is because of this that I would like to see a global analysis chapter added in the next revision of both of Dr. Benninga's textbooks. Business, and the financing of business, is global-even at the principles level.
Statement: There is not an employer on the planet who will care that you can solve a time-value-of-money problem using a hand-held calculator. Real world financial applications require spreadsheet analysis.
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Companies are increasingly requiring sophisticated modeling skills from financial specialists. Logic in today's business environment calls for constant surveillance of possible global funding sources in an optimal growth strategy. There is no better way to do this than through financial modeling using the business spreadsheet standard-Excel.
With the skills developed in studying advanced business analytics in Dr. Benninga's textbooks, a businessperson can develop "what-if" scenarios analyzing the effects to a business in a change in any economic or financial element. The gain from being able to complete a model forecasting company strategy and financials is being able to increase efficiency in business operations. This efficiency comes from being able to analyze the events that affect business, either favorably or unfavorably, and then adjust operations and project financing appropriately. Company growth is directly affected by this ability to adjust operations. Growth at any level requires capital: Either capital in the form of machinery or capital in the form of money in order to purchase machinery. Being able to forecast company strategy and financials allows company flexibility in growth planning and budget. Optimal strategy realizes that the only growth that matters is growth that adds value to the company. It is the ability to strategically design growth that is driving the demand for Excel modeling skills by companies. Begin developing your financial modeling skills by purchasing this book; extend your beginning level skills by studying Dr. Benninga's textbook, Financial Modeling (2e), (see my review). It has advanced financial modeling.
Table of Contents: Principles of Finance with Excel
Chapter 1: Introduction to Finance
Chapter 2: Business Organization and Taxes
Chapter 3: An Accounting Primer
Chapter 4: Cash Management With Excel
Chapter 5: The Time Value of Money
Chapter 6: What Does It Cost? Applications of the Time Value of Money
Chapter 7: Introduction to Capital Budgeting
Chapter 8: Issues in Capital Budgeting
Chapter 9: Choosing a Discount Rate
Chapter 10: Using Financial Planning Models for Valuation
Chapter 11: What Is Risk?
Chapter 12: Statistics for Portfolios
Chapter 13: Portfolio Returns and the Efficient Frontier
Chapter 14: The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and the Security Market Line (SML)
Chapter 15: Using the Security Market Line (SML) to Measure Investment Performance
Chapter 16: The Security Market Line (SML) and the Cost of Capital
Chapter 17: Efficient Markets-Some General Principles of Security Valuation
Chapter 18: Bond Valuation
Chapter 19: Valuing Stocks
Chapter 20: Capital Structure and the Value of a Firm
Chapter 21: The Evidence on Capital Structure
Chapter 22: Dividend Policy
Chapter 23: Introduction to Options
Chapter 24: Option Pricing Facts
Chapter 25: Option Pricing-The Black-Scholes Formula
Chapter 26: The Binominal Option Pricing Model
Finally, the last section, Part 7, has eight chapters on Excel features that are especially useful in business applications.
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Principles of Finance with Excel is the first textbook that comprehensively integrates Excel into the teaching and practice of finance. This book provides exceptional resources to the instructor and student, combining classroom-tested pedagogy with the full potential of Excel's powerful functions. In today's business world, computation is done almost wholly in Excel. Excel's ability to combine graphics with computation and perform complex sensitivity analysis with ease provides potent insights into financial problems. Despite this, most finance texts rely heavily on hand-held calculators and ignore Excel. As a result, many students find that after they enter the professional environment, they have to relearn both finance and Excel. Principles of Finance with Excel is ideal for undergraduate courses in introductory finance or as a reference for finance professionals. A Free In-Text CD for students contains electronic versions of all spreadsheets in the book. A Companion Website -- http://www.oup.com/us/benninga -- contains lecture notes, PowerPoint Slides, and a Test Bank for instructors.
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