Why should you read this book?

This book has some unique things to offer. It is about the subject of economic value and how this can be used to make better financial decisions within companies. Many other books do this but there are three things that make this one special:

1. It is a deeply practical book that delivers techniques and skills which will be of immediate use within a corporate environment. I claim this with all of the confidence which follows from my 36 year career with the oil major BP PLC. Although the fundamental reliance on discounted cash flow is the same, the approach recommended by this book adds up to something which is significantly different from that suggested by the current standard textbooks on the subject.

2. It introduces a technique which I call Sources of Value. This technique provides a new way of thinking about where value comes from and has the potential for very wide application in the formulation and implementation of successful strategies. The Sources of Value technique offers a way of adding a quantifiable edge to strategy concepts which are otherwise more often limited to qualitative consideration. In this way, Sources of Value creates a clear link between strategy and value.

3. It introduces a way of structuring accounting data that I call the abbreviated financial summary. This way of setting out accounting data makes a clear and obvious link between the economic value of individual projects and a company's overall accounting results. By adding this link between accounts and value to the previous link between strategy and value one can integrate what are usually treated as the separate business skills of accounting, finance and strategy.