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It can make a huge difference to a company if a business owner or long-standing leader is willing to step down. The leader’s influence may cause employees to react differently and may result in a drop in business sales.
It doesn’t matter if the person is a C-suite executive, a long-serving manager, or the owner of the business, it’s important to have a solid plan before you hand over the reins. Below are 14 members of the Forbes Finance Council discussing the financial implications that businesses need to address when there is a significant leadership transition.
1. Replacing Departing Leaders from WithinIt is important to prepare for the replacement of a leader in your organization and to have someone trained to do so. When we lose a key member of the team, it has been our best strategy to promote from within the company. We offer key man insurance to our partners in the event of an unfortunate circumstance involving a key contributor to business revenue. You can’t prepare for failure if you don’t plan! – Joseph Lustberg, Upwise Capital
2. Predict How The Change will Affect EmployeesYour company must be able to anticipate the impact of this change on your employees. You must prioritize your top employees and create incentive plans to ensure that the value drivers of your business are satisfied with their roles during the leadership transition. Your business’ financial success can be affected if your key employees are unhappy during a transition. Brian Slipka and True North Equity Partners.
Forbes Finance Council invites only executives who are successful in financial planning and accounting. Do I qualify?
3. Take into Account The Effect of The Owner on Cash FlowIt is important to consider the impact of the owner on cash flow forecasts. Are they able to generate new revenue from new clients? Are they able to run expenses that could be wiped out if the business is sold? Are they able to personally guarantee credit lines? – Meredith Moore, Artisan Financial Strategies LLC.
4. Make A Plan for Maintaining Internal and External Relationships5. Develop Relationships with Key Accounts
Long-standing customers can be lost to new competitors. When a key leader leaves, it is important to maintain strong relationships with key accounts. These key leaders have probably been able to keep these customers over time and have been sought out by the competition. Many competitors see leaving leadership as a “land grab” opportunity. Do not underestimate the power and influence of relationships. – Drew Gurley, Redbird Advisors.
6. Create A Long-Term Financial ModelA leadership change can be difficult. However, a company that has efficient financial systems will facilitate a smooth transition. The leadership team is responsible for setting the foundations for financial reporting, accounting practices, and governance systems. A succession plan should include a financial model that can be used for three, five, and ten years. – Peter Goldstein, Exchange Listing LLC.
7. Consult with Advisors to Address Tax Implications 8. Calculate The Leader’s Intrinsic Value Correctly9. Add Up The Costs to Cover Everything That The Departing Leader Does
How much of the existing customer base and overall business development are the result of the work of the leader or owner? To foster and transfer relationships takes patience and delicate maneuvering. It is possible that you will need a team to replace the owner. Some may be needed for client management, while others can help with business development. You may find that the salaries and commissions of the new owner are more than what the existing leader is worth. – Aaron Spool, Eventus Advisory Group, LLC.
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How To Grow The Business – Key Insights For Smooth Transition
You know when your business should expand internationally. Expanding your business internationally can present many opportunities, potential customers, as well as obstacles.
It helps you grow your business and also allows you to understand the global market. If you are looking to make your mark on the world, now is the right time to do it.
There are many things to consider when expanding your business internationally. Multilingualism isn’t enough. You also need to be able to take your business to a country that meets their requirements. It should be useful and serve a purpose.
Here are some questions to ask before you start:
Is my product likely to sell in the targeted culture?
Are your customers familiar with the products or services you offer?
Are you positive it will work in this country?
How does the infrastructure look?
How to Expand Internationally: Keep your Business Purpose AliveIt is important to fully understand the potential of your brand in its current market and national version before you expand it internationally.
You may have difficulty expanding your business internationally if your brand strategy doesn’t meet the mark. Understanding your customers is the first step to understanding them abroad. Your brand is what will make or break your business. This includes product packaging, website design, customer service, and who your ideal buyers are. You need a solid strategy that can work for all of these.
Also read: Top 10 Job Search Websites of 2023
Do not forget about Cultural Barriers and Language BarriersThere are many obstacles to overcome when you try to enter a foreign country. Two of the most important obstacles are language and cultural differences. These two issues will require you to adapt your marketing and branding strategy to appeal to your customers differently and highlight their culture.
This means that even if your office is new, you need to think about the culture of the office. Work/life balance can be different in every place, so you should make decisions that are based on that.
Language barriers can make it difficult to communicate with others when you are there. This can be avoided by learning a foreign language. This shows respect for their culture and values. It also helps to build meaningful relationships.
It is possible to identify the language spoken in your area and how long it will take you to learn it. You can then create a plan and start learning the language to help you move your business forward.
Focus on the market needs that your business can solveGlobal does not necessarily mean that the whole United States is your target country. It all depends on many factors. Some regions are better markets for your product.
These are some tips to help you choose which areas to focus on:
Is there a need for my product/service in this area?
These are just a few of the many options available to you. You can also choose the areas that matter most to your business and pinpoint the best places for your product.
Also read:
Top 10 Programming Languages for Kids to learn
Relationships are ImportantYou will likely be dealing with customers speaking different languages when you go global. It is therefore important to translate product materials and keep your brand as one that values other cultures.
You can also consider having a native speaker in your team to help you understand these requirements. This will ensure that you communicate with your customers as you should. A video translation service is also available. Many professional translation services are available to assist you in keeping up with your client and building relationships that will be important.
Play your Logistics Game RightYou must manage the logistics of global expansion in a structured manner. This is critical to your success. This is where you need to be aware of the possible pitfalls that could affect your smooth logistical plans. You should also consider shipping costs, damaged cargo, and government regulations.
Logistics is crucial for your brand image. Setbacks such as these can negatively impact the brand image. These are the things that will help you build customer loyalty quicker if you deliver within the time agreed upon. You will have a nearness if you lose sight of the logistics.
Identify CompetitionIt is important to know the competition in your market before you enter it.
Also read: Top 10 Job Search Websites of 2023
Culture is ImportantThere must be a huge difference between the ideologies and practices of dealing with different people. These are the most important aspects to think about when expanding your business internationally.
Your services may be more popular in certain regions. Based on cultural practices and specifications, however, you might see greater or lesser demand.
Your branding strategies must be flexible to adapt to new markets. You won’t be able to appeal to new customers if you don’t solve them. You should also consider that cultural demands and views change, so something that might be offensive to one culture may not be offensive to another. These are the essential things to know before you start your global expansion plan.
Some of the largest businesses would have failed in certain markets if they underestimated their appeal.
Consistency Is the KeyConsistency is key to positioning your brand in a global marketplace. No matter what you do, your brand’s values and promises must be kept in mind. People must see your brand as a positive example, especially as they grow in their perspective.
Also read: Top 10 Job Search Websites of 2023
ConclusionThese are the top things to think about if you’re a business looking to expand internationally. It is a big step and requires careful planning. If you do everything right, your global expansion branding strategy can appeal strongly to both your customers and the entire market.
It doesn’t matter if you start at step 1, but it is important to remain consistent in your actions. Once you have everything in order, you can streamline everything to make your business stand out from the rest.
How Scientists Are Preparing For A World Without Antibiotics
Antimicrobial peptides (the pink ribbons in this illustration), which are part of the innate immune system in all domains of life, can destroy microbes (blue and green) and also call white blood cells (the marbled white and red balls) to help fight an infection. Ella Marushchenko
The drugs that have protected us from virulent bacteria for more than seventy years are slowly losing their edge, and we need new weapons. Disease-causing bacteria are becoming impervious to antibiotics that once wiped them out, including some drugs once considered last-resort.
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria infect at least 2 million people every year in the United States, killing 23,000. Some researchers estimate that if left unchecked, superbugs will kill 10 million people every year and cost the global economy $100 trillion by the year 2050.
“A lot of things that we take for granted right now, like say a C-section or a hip replacement or organ transplant…without having the antibiotics, these kinds of things will become really difficult,” says François Franceschi, a program officer for therapeutic development in the Bacteriology and Mycology Branch of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Those with weakened immune systems would be particularly vulnerable, but anyone could be at risk in a post-antibiotic world. “People are talking about potential for a post-antibiotic era where the antibiotics that we have available these days don’t work against simple infections like a small wound or a cut,” says César de la Fuente, a bioengineer at MIT.
“A lot of people in the field have been now trying to look for alternative strategies that add to our arsenal,” says Timothy Lu, also of MIT. It’s “not that any one of them on their own is going to be the one silver bullet that’s going to cure bacteria for the rest of our lives, but more to be able to come at the problem from a variety of different ways.”
Here are some of the ways we will send our new allies into the fray in the war on superbugs.
Disarm the invadersBacteria don’t always need to be killed in order to be neutralized. Some treatments attack germs indirectly by targeting the weapons that make them virulent. “The bacteria will still be there but the consequences of the infection will not be severe, and then that will give the immune system…a chance to combat that infection,” Franceschi says.
If your drug doesn’t actually kill bacteria, they have less incentive to evolve resistance against it. “The development of resistance is going to take a lot longer because the bacteria isn’t actively fighting that,” Francsechi says.
Many bacteria secrete toxins that damage the cells of their host. One common type are called pore-forming toxins, which punch holes in cells. They’re produced by MRSA, Escherichia coli, Listeria, the bacteria that cause anthrax, and the venom of snakes, scorpions and sea anemones.
Liangfang Zhang has come up with a way to nullify these toxins. “You take away the weapon [and] they can become much weaker,” says Zhang, a nanoengineer at the University of California, San Diego. He coats nanoparticles with an irresistible target—membranes plucked from red blood cells. The red blood cell shell acts as a decoy, drawing in toxins that would otherwise attack healthy cells. “They serve as a sponge to suck up all these toxins,” Zhang says.
In their first exploration, the nanosponges soaked up the toxins without harming mice. This year, Zhang’s work with nanoparticles as decoys was one of 24 projects awarded funding by the National Institutes of Health. He hopes to begin human clinical trials in the next year to two.
A tiny sponge, about 85 nanometers across, can soak up toxins produced by bacteria. Liangfang Zhang Laboratory, UC San Diego
Nanoparticles, which are often made from plastics or metals such as silver, can also impair bacteria by disrupting their protective cell membranes or causing DNA damage. Nanoparticles are easy to work with because they essentially build themselves. “You control the temperature, you control the solvent and so on, these molecules will automatically assemble into the nanoparticle,” Zhang says.
Nanoparticles may be more expensive than traditional antibiotics. And directing them to the right spot in a body is also a challenge. Another concern is making sure that the nanoparticles are made from materials that won’t trigger an immediate immune response, and will break down over time so they don’t accumulate in the body.
“There are still ongoing questions about the long term safety of some of these things,” Lu says. “That being said I think using nanoparticles really can have an antimicrobial effect that’s very potent.”
Special deliveryAlternative therapies can also be used to make existing antibiotics more effective. Scientists are investigating how to use nanoparticles to deliver cancer drugs and antibiotics.
Antibiotics spread throughout the body and are toxic in high doses. With nanoparticles, you can deploy concentrated hits of drugs. Thousands of drug molecules can be stuffed inside a single nanoparticle.
“They can easily just stick to the membrane and constantly release the drug right onto the bacteria,” Zhang says. This means a larger, more effective cargo can be used without boosting the total drug dose.
“This can overwhelm the bacteria’s resistance mechanisms, because they haven’t developed resistance mechanisms against this drug storm,” Zhang says.
A problem with nanoparticles, and many other tools, is that the immune system sees them as a threat. “The size is very much like viruses,” Zhang says. “Our body actually is trained to clear these nanoparticles or viruses if you don’t protect them.”
Zhang and his colleagues have camouflaged nanoparticles in jackets made from the membranes of platelets—cell fragments that help blood clot. “From outside it looks just like a mini cell,” Zhang says.
Certain bacteria are attracted to platelets, which they hijack to mask themselves from the immune system. Platelet-coated nanoparticles turn the table on these bacteria, luring the interlopers in only to blast them with drugs.
“All the nanoparticles will specifically go to the bacteria and release the drug,” says Zhang. He has used the platelet-coated particles to treat mice infected with a strain of MRSA, which is resistant to many antibiotics.
Direct attackSometimes, however, no subterfuge is needed. Many of the alternatives to traditional antibiotics can kill bacteria outright. One strategy is designing manmade versions of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which are a part of the innate immune response in microbes, plants and animals (such as Tasmanian devils). These compounds attack a pathogen’s membrane and may also wreak havoc inside the cell.
In a recent project, de la Fuente collaborated with Lu and others to select a non-toxic AMP discovered in simple marine animals called tunicates. The team added a few amino acids to this template, improving its ability to treat mice infected with antibiotic-resistant E. coli and MRSA. The souped-up AMP also galvanized the rodents’ immune systems by calming inflammation and calling for backup in the form of white blood cells.
Antimicrobial peptides can vanquish a wide range of pathogens, and bacteria have difficulty developing resistance to them. “In comparison with conventional antibiotics, these peptides are more effective in many cases,” de la Fuente says.
Colonies of Acinetobacter baumannii, bacteria that can develop resistance against the last-resort antibiotic colistin. Researchers protected mice from A. baumannii by designing many-armed particles that latch onto bacteria like burrs and break apart the membrane. Like antimicrobial peptides, the tiny stars are built from amino acids. But their bulkier size seems to make them less dangerous against healthy cells. “Essentially we now have a star which kills the bacteria but doesn’t kill the host,” says coauthor Greg Qiao, of the University of Melbourne. Dr. Todd Parker. Ph.D.; Assoc. Director for Lab. Science/DPEI(Acting) and LRN Training Coordinator
AMPs are made from relatively short strings of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. This makes them straightforward (albeit time-consuming and expensive) to build. “We have yet to bring down the cost,” de la Fuente says. Researchers are exploring ways to build AMPs more cheaply by programming microbes to make them instead of relying on a machine.
However, there are concerns that AMPs might turn on host cells. And as with many alternatives to antibiotics, sending them to the right location at a high enough concentration to be effective is also a challenge. “What’s more feasible in the short term is probably topical application,” de la Fuente says. “We would formulate these peptides into, say, a cream that you could apply [if] you have a skin infection or an open wound.” They could also be used to coat tables, computers, surgical instruments, or catheters to prevent them from being colonized by germs.
Re-sensitizationAnother way to weaken bacteria is to knock out the resistance they have cultivated against antibiotics. Viruses that are specialized to prey on bacteria, called bacteriophages, can be tapped for these missions.
Phages are extremely effective bacteria-killers, but researchers can use genetic engineering to give them new skills to bring to battle, and to restore bacteria’s sensitivity to traditional drugs.
Reprogrammed phages may lock onto bacteria carrying genes that confer antibiotic resistance, erasing this ability or killing the bacteria. With the resistant germs knocked out or defused, the remaining population is vulnerable to antibiotics.
Another way bacteria resist antibiotics is by secreting compounds that create a barrier called a biofilm that drugs cannot penetrate. Phages can be engineered to chew up the biofilm (Lu and de la Fuente’s redesigned antimicrobial peptide also shows promise for biofilm busting).
In the wild, phages can slay bacteria directly. “Some phages will introduce their DNA into the bacteria and in order to liberate themselves… just chew up the cell wall, for example, and sort of explode the cell,” Lu says. Others act as parasitic hitchhikers.
Modified phages can also wipe out bacteria. “What we have been doing is trying to engineer phages that can go into a bacteria and kill them in a very targeted way,” Lu says. “You can introduce new functions into the phages to make them more powerful antimicrobial agents.”
Phages were actually discovered about 100 years ago. They were eclipsed by antibiotics in the United States, although some areas of Eastern Europe have continued to use them. Currently, there are no FDA-approved phages, although clinical trials are underway. Phages seem to be about as effective as antibiotics in treating humans, although there is not yet clinical data to confirm this.
However, like other alternatives, phages may trigger the immune system. “If you inject any virus or any foreign peptide into a person, there’s always a chance there’s going to be a reaction,” Lu says. Another worry is that some phages may pick up genes related to antibiotic resistance and transfer them to other bacteria.
But they’re unlikely to harm human tissue. “Phages do not replicate in human cells, and I haven’t seen any reports where they’ve been shown to have any negative consequences,” Lu says. “There are tons of phages inside of us already, it’s not like these things are foreign to us.”
A personal touchSome alternative therapies may be tailored to fight specific germs. Here, again, phages are ideal candidates. “They are basically the natural enemy of bacteria,” Lu says. Generally, “if you find a bacteria, you can find a phage against it.”
Traditional antibiotics often kill bacteria indiscriminately—including those in our body’s natural microbiome that play key roles in our health. This can leave an opening for opportunists like Clostridium difficile to colonize the body. “You don’t want to carpet bomb the gut and kill all the bacteria,” Franceschi says.
Viruses offer a more personalized approach. “You can try to spare the good bacteria…while still being able to kill the bad bacteria,” Lu says.
But this specificity is a double-edged sword. To cover enough of the different bacteria that might be infecting a patient, multiple viruses will have to be mixed into a cocktail. And, while phages aren’t particularly expensive to grow, cocktails laced with many viruses make manufacturing more complicated. “The traditional way of doing that has been to go into nature and just find all the different phages and mix them together,” Lu says. “It poses a lot of challenges in terms of practical development.”
Lu is working on an NIH-funded project to make cocktails full of phages built from the safe scaffold. By tweaking the region that dictates what a phage infects, you can target different bacteria without modifying the rest of the virus. “That allows you to take phages and point them in different directions,” Lu says. “That’s one of the last remaining hurdles for phage therapy to become widespread, the ability to make sort of a well defined cocktail and tune it so it will go after bacteria you care about.”
Even so, it’s difficult to craft a tailored medicine without knowing what is causing an infection. “If you go to a doctor, they’re…not going to feel confident giving you a narrow spectrum treatment if they don’t actually know what the bacteria is,” Lu says.
Doctors need speedier diagnostics so they can figure out which bacteria they are going after, and whether it is resistant to traditional antibiotics. Lu and his colleagues have engineered phages for quick, cheap diagnostics. When they infect their target bacteria, they light up by producing the same protein that fireflies use. Expose phages to sample from your patient, and “you can simply read out whether the sample is glowing or not, and then you know whether that bacteria was present in that sample,” Lu says.
Doctors can then use tailored therapies, whether they are made from phages or other tools. “You really need that option of diagnostics or none of the vision of having narrow spectrum antimicrobials is going to work,” Lu says.
A diverse armoryThese aren’t the only weapons we are adding to our cache. Researchers are also exploring other options, like sending other bacteria to fight pathogens, continuing to hunt for new antibiotics (often inspired by compounds bacteria use to kill each other in the wild), and using antibodies, among other things.
“You probably can’t just rely on one technology, or one thing, to eradicate the entire problem,” Zhang says. Tackling superbugs from many angles, sometimes even combining new tactics with traditional therapies, will give doctors options to choose from.
It’s going to be a few years before these new tools are adopted for widespread use. And for awhile, these alternative antimicrobials will be directed to cases where antibiotics are no longer working. “Antibiotics, when they do work, are so cheap and so awesome that I think getting clinicians to move away from that wholesale would be really hard,” Lu says. “Long term, my hope…is really that it will replace a lot of the broad spectrum antimicrobials because…messing up our microbiome is bad for us in a lot of different ways, and I think the only solution for that is really to get to targeted therapy.”
Sending a diverse array of weapons against bacteria will slow down the development of resistance – the wide use of individual antibiotics has made it relatively simple for the bacteria they target to evolve defenses – but it won’t make the problem go away.
“Bacteria are essentially very plastic and vey well equipped to evolve really quickly,” Franceschi says. “Bacteria will keep evolving and you will always need something new.”
Preparing Your Workforce For The Future Of Fintech
blog / Finance Preparing Your Workforce for the Future of Fintech
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Banking has existed in some form for millennia. And for many centuries, the core principles and activities of the financial industry essentially remained the same, even as the scale of global financial activities grew exponentially.
For companies and leaders, this shift has opened up some big questions. What does the future of fintech hold for organizations inside and outside the financial services industry? And what can companies do now to prepare their workforces?
What Leaders Need to Know About the Future of Fintech
As a refresher, fintech broadly refers to the application of emerging technology to the financial services industry, generally to streamline and improve the delivery of core services. Today, fintech startups and legacy companies that embrace emerging technology are challenging existing financial services business models. How? By disrupting intermediaries, reducing fees, offering an improved customer experience, and democratizing financial services products.
The promise of fintech has made it the leading sector for venture investment in recent years—even amid the challenging financial landscape of 2023. But fintech isn’t just for startups. It’s relevant to companies of all sizes in banking, investing, real estate, insurance, risk management, regulation, and other fields in the financial industry.
The venture firm Coatue predicts the fintech market cap will grow by 50% in the next three years, with nearly unlimited potential for companies that can tap into this market while maintaining sound business practices. Legacy companies that don’t adapt, on the other hand, face a serious risk of disruption. To stay ahead in this fast-changing landscape, corporations and their employees need to develop the new skills and capabilities required to adapt to—and innovate—new financial technologies.
Fintech Focus Areas in 2023
Microfinancing and crowdfunding
: Providing financial services to those who have traditionally lacked access to tools such as banking and lending.
Payments and remittances:
Offering new tools for making payments and transferring money, including across currencies, with increased speed and decreased costs.
Cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and other distributed ledger technologies:
Creating decentralized, highly secure platforms for storing data and conducting transactions and offering alternatives to traditional fiat currencies.
Fintech startups have emerged in each of these areas to challenge legacy companies with new products and services that address unmet needs in both the B2B and consumer spaces.
Top Capabilities Needed for Fintech Success
To make the most of the opportunities the fintech revolution offers, major corporations and scrappy startups alike need teams equipped with not only broad industry knowledge but also emerging technical skills.
The top three capabilities companies need to develop to prepare for the future of fintech are:
1. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Fraud detection and prevention
Regulatory compliance
Credit risk assessment
Institutional trading
Customer service
2. Data Analytics
Marketing
Customer service
Product development and refinement
Risk management
Investment decision-making
Regulatory compliance
Data analysts in the fintech industry need a strong grounding in core data science principles to succeed, as well as specific knowledge of the specific challenges and opportunities that high-frequency fintech data presents.
3. Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology
Despite recent setbacks in the cryptocurrency space, blockchain and distributed ledger technology remain one of the most promising areas of financial innovation. The top use cases for blockchain in financial services include:
Smart contracts
Fraud prevention
Decentralized payments
Tokenization of assets
Cryptocurrencies
To make smart investments in this space, companies need teams that understand the complexities of blockchain systems and can evaluate their application to various financial products and services. They also need to understand the complex risks associated with decentralized finance.
In addition to these core capabilities, companies also need employees with knowledge and skills in a variety of related areas, including embedded finance, global fintech regulation, open banking, banking-as-a-service, strategic finance, and financial governance.
How to Build Teams for the Future of Fintech
Globally, fintech talent is in short supply. Companies face increasing challenges in recruiting and retaining qualified employees for key roles—and even highly-qualified talent may lack important context and knowledge specific to the intersection of finance and technology.
Berkeley Fintech: Frameworks, Applications, and Strategies, a University of California, Berkeley Executive Education course delivered in partnership with Emeritus, prepares teams to make the most of opportunities in the fintech space—and to meet emerging challenges head-on.
This course, designed for teams in banking, investing, real estate, insurance, risk management, regulation, and other fields in the financial industry, as well as fintech startups, dives deep into both the financial and technological considerations to offer a holistic view of the future of fintech.
This two-month online course pairs theoretical knowledge with real-world applications and is structured around three primary outcomes.
Section One: Building Foundational Knowledge and Understanding ‘Why Now?’The first section of the program provides teams with a comprehensive overview of the fintech revolution history to date, the broader fintech landscape and the economic foundations of fintech. It ensures teams have a shared understanding of the foundations of fintech and the overall opportunity, answering the question of “why now”?
Section Two: Developing Technical KnowledgeThe program provides an in-depth overview of the skills and core capabilities that are driving the fintech revolution: AI/ML, data science, blockchain/distributed ledger technology, financial literacy, and a deep understanding of the ecosystem. Teams will learn the core principles of each area, understand how the technology is applied, and identify opportunities to use new tools to add value. Employees in both technical and non-technical roles will understand where the competition is headed and how to stay one step ahead.
Section Three: Real-World ApplicationThe final section of the program applies fintech theory and principles to real-life business challenges. Using case studies from both startup disruptors like Venmo and legacy companies like Fidelity, participants explore applications of fintech business models and learn from notable Silicon Valley VCs and others (e.g., a World’s Private Equity leader) about what makes a great investment. Finally, the focus is on applying new frameworks to assess a fintech valuation as well as identify fintech ideas or investment opportunities for your organization.
Learn more about group enrollment options in the Berkeley FinTech course to ensure your team is prepared for the future of fintech.
Top 10 Corporate Finance Books(Updated For 2023)
Best Books to Learn Corporate Finance
Corporate finance is a critical field for business development. Entrepreneurs learn about collecting capital for building or acquiring a business. Correctly understanding corporate finance is valuable to the growth and success of a business.
The list below is helpful for anyone looking to learn more about corporate finance. These can be the beginning point of your business. Many successful people in business have shared their experiences and key to creating a booming business.
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This is the list of the top 10 corporate finance books to help you and your business reach new heights.
Let us now go through each book’s review among the top 10 Corporate Finance Books.
Book #1: Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart The Startup GameAuthor: Walker Diebel
Buy this book here.
Book ReviewThe book explains how acquisition entrepreneurs can strategically outsmart the startup game by getting others to acquire their company before it goes bankrupt. It teaches readers what to do and not to do to secure funding for your startup and the importance of developing a solid management team. It also provides insights into what motivates corporations to acquire startups. The author gives tips to help you avoid acquisition and what actions you should take if someone wants to buy your company.
Key Points
The reader learns to purchase an existing business instead of starting one from scratch. They understand how to use ownership as a route to financial independence.
One must spend a fraction of their time raising capital. You should locate excellent brokers, create your own “deal flow,” and be the first to learn about new listings.
Discover the best opportunities and most significant risks of any company. Navigate the acquisition process and become a successful acquisition entrepreneur.
Buy Then Build is your guide to beating the startup game, leading an entrepreneurial lifestyle, and enjoying the financial benefits of ownership right away.
Book #2: For Profit: A History of CorporationsAuthor: William Magnuson
Buy this book here.
Book ReviewThe book takes readers back to the earliest days of corporations to explore how they’ve evolved and their future. From the first joint-stock company in 17th century England to the giant multinationals of today, it traces the significant turning points in corporate history that have helped shape modern capitalism. It also explores how corporations are likely to evolve in our globalized economy, and he asks which ones will thrive and which will disappear.
Key Points
It is a comprehensive, interesting, and well-written analysis of the history of corporations in America.
The book offers an engaging perspective on corporate actors’ power and critical role in shaping society over over two centuries.
It is an excellent read for those curious about the origins of corporations and how they came to exist.
It takes readers through the history of corporations, from the very first company in Ancient Rome to the present day.
Book #3: Venture DealsAuthor: Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson
Book ReviewWith this book, you will learn how to better understand the VC industry and how to make decisions that are beneficial for your company. This book also guides one on what to do and what not to do when talking with VCs. It is an excellent resource for entrepreneurs interested in raising capital. This guidebook provides readers with valuable insights into the legal structure of venture deals, how to negotiate good terms, and what to do when someone offers you a term sheet.
Key Points
It is a startup founder’s guide to navigating the world of venture capital.
Entrepreneurs can read the book to understand how venture capitalists think – why they do what they do and when it makes sense for them to invest in a company.
The authors explain complex concepts using down-to-earth analogies that any entrepreneur can grasp.
Entrepreneurs who have made the leap from entrepreneur to CEO often find themselves questioning their decision. Reading this book could save time, heartache, and money for those about to make that jump.
Book #4: The Intelligent Investor, Revised Edition: The Definitive Book on Value InvestingAuthor: Benjamin Graham, Jason Zweig & Warren E. Buffet
Buy this book here.
Book Review Key Points
This book teaches the value-investing philosophy of Benjamin Graham and is a must-read for anyone who desires to achieve long-term investment success.
It includes timeless principles that have helped investors stay on the right side of Mr. Market’s moods since 1949.
Additional chapters cover all the new investing terms created over time, including derivatives, hedging strategies, etc.
This revised edition also offers today’s conservative investors ways to use new tools such as index funds, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), and mutual funds with confidence.
Book #5: The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New FutureAuthor: Sebastian Mallaby
Buy this book here.
Book ReviewIn his new book, Sebastian Mallaby argues that a handful of individuals are responsible for shaping the global economy. The author, a columnist for The Washington Post, examines this phenomenon through the lens of venture capital and its power law in detail. This law dictates that the success of startups tends to follow a pattern where their founders have already had success elsewhere.
Key Points
The book is excellent for any investor or entrepreneur who understands how venture capital works and how it has shaped the global economy.
The book opens with how Facebook’s co-founders approached Sequoia Capital in 2005. It talks about how this meeting set in motion one of the most powerful trends of our time- Silicon Valley’s dominance over Wall Street.
This book is excellent for entrepreneurs who need to understand the nuances of venture capital and how they can use it as a tool.
It is also a great read for those in management who need to understand how to grow their company.
Book #6: 12 Months to $1Million: How To Pick a Winning Product, Build a Real Business and Become a Seven-figure EntrepreneurAuthor: Rayon Daniel Moran
Buy this book here.
Book Review Key Points
This book is a must-read if you are an entrepreneur or want to see your idea become a reality.
The book also includes lessons learned that he can share with readers about finding a profitable product and building a real business.
It is worth checking out if you want guidance in launching your business plan or feeling stuck in your career path.
Book #7: Build: An Unorthodox Guide To Making Things Worth MakingAuthor: Tony Fadell
Buy this book here.
Book ReviewTony Fadell is one of the most successful people in Silicon Valley. He has been a designer, engineer, and executive at Apple and Nest. But he never took any business classes in college – so he wrote this book to teach you how to build a company that makes things worth making. Tony Fadell’s Build helps bridge that knowledge gap, giving you a real-world understanding of how to build a company from scratch.
Key Points
The book has anecdotes from the author’s time at Apple and Google and insights into what makes a good product.
To make sure they were building something worth making, he used prototypes.
He would take circuit boards out of the lab and put them together in an old metal shed near his house to see how they interacted.
Once it looked like something worth making, he brought it back to the lab for more testing and prototyping until it finally passed muster among engineers around him.
Book #8: What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of ExcellenceAuthor: Stephen A. Schwarzman
Buy this book here.
Book ReviewSchwarzman shares lessons from his life and business career, providing an inspiring blueprint for how anyone can succeed in today’s competitive global economy. The author stresses that dedication, hard work, and skill are essential ingredients for success; without these qualities, it will be impossible to achieve your goals.
Key Points
In this book, Stephen A. Schwarzman shares insights from his decades as a financial executive and investor.
The lessons within these pages will provide readers with an insider’s view of success in today’s business environment.
What It Takes is a book about what it takes to live up to our potential for ourselves and society.
Book #9: The Lifestyle InvestorAuthor: Justin Donald
Buy this book here.
Book ReviewThis book is a guidebook for anyone seeking financial freedom and retiring early. The author of this book is an entrepreneur and investor with over twenty years of experience in investing, business, and finance. This book provides you with the necessary knowledge, motivation, and tools to help you achieve the lifestyle of your dreams. The book teaches the reader how to use their money to make more money. The book teaches the reader how to invest and create passive income.
Key Points
The book provides 10 commandments to help people create a passive income and financial freedom.
It will give you all the necessary knowledge about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, and real estate.
This book is best for beginners who want to learn how to invest their money wisely and get a passive income.
Book #10: The Lean StartupAuthor: Eric Ries
Buy this book here.
Book ReviewThis book by Eric Ries teaches the process of launching a new business. The book aims to reduce the time and money it takes for entrepreneurs to get their businesses off the ground. It’s a process applicable to businesses, from tech companies to restaurants. It allows them to quickly learn what works and what doesn’t, saving time and money in the long run.
Key Points
The Lean Startup is a mindset and a methodology to build new products, measure their progress, and learn what works through continuous innovation.
The book’s core principle is that it’s better to launch your product as soon as possible to learn from the customer’s feedback. It is about how entrepreneurs can use continuous innovation to create successful businesses.
The book provides readers with the lean startup framework and how to apply it in business, product development, and innovation.
It talks about building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that can be tested on customers and then iterated for better results.
Recommended BooksWe hope our EDUCBA guide on the top 10 corporate finance books was useful to you. For further information, EDUCBA recommends these articles,
Watch Out For The Top 10 Enterprise Ai Projects Ideas For 2023
AI projects can be anything, from calculating the chances of survival of fictional characters to diagnosing diseases and saving real lives. Microsoft Translator app
Microsoft is breaking the next barrier in multinational collaboration: Language. The new translator app uses neural machine translation technology to enable conversations, in both text and speech, across 60+ languages, for global teams. It even enables speakers of multiple languages to join the same conversation, translating one-to-many at the same time.
Marketing and Sales AnalyticsAI can be used to implement marketing and sales tracking along with predictions based on forecasting and analytics. This can work with keeping track of inventory and restocking as well when forecasting demand.
Customer RecommendationE-commerce has benefitted dramatically from AI. The finest example is Amazon and its customer recommendation system. This customer recommendation system has helped the platform in enhancing its income tremendously thanks to a better customer experience. You can try to build a customer recommendation system for an E-commerce platform, as well. You can use the browsing history of the customer for your data.
Division of EmailsOne of the latest trends in the cybersecurity market is email segregation using AI for detecting, tracking, and
analysing the keywords in the emails to filter the emails for spam and phishing emails. Spam emails are dangerous because if they are not controlled, it occupies the space, delivers the malicious payload, and can cause security vulnerabilities. Similarly, spear-phishing or targeted phishing emails are malicious and can collect personal information about an individual for malicious intents such as stealing the data or stealing the money from the bank accounts, etc.
ChatbotsOne of the best AI-based projects is to create a chatbot. You should start by creating a basic chatbot for customer service. You can take inspiration from the
chatbots
present on various websites. Once you’ve created a simple chatbot, you can improve it and create a more detailed version of the same.
Personal AssistantsOn any phone/laptop today, there is an
AI-powered personal assistant
who can answer questions, set alarms, and reminders, place calls, etc. They study several artificial intelligence datasets and combine a bunch of AI methods like voice recognition, natural language processing, convolutional neural networks, long short-term memory, etc.
Transcriber AppA transformer model extracts features from sentences and determines the importance of each word in a sentence. A transformer has an encoding and decoding component, both of which are trained end-to-end. You can build your own AI translator app with a transformer. To do this, you can load a pre-trained transformer model into Python. Then, transform the text you want to translate into tokens and feed it into the pre-trained model. You can use the GluonNLP library for this purpose. You can also load the train and test dataset for this AI project from this library.
Advertising and Product Implications Facial IdentificationFacial identification engines such as the one used in Facebook and the ones used by authorities to catch criminals are built using deep neural connections which help determine the connection between facial features by
analysing and going through various datasets. It is one of the best Artificial Intelligence projects to get involved with which can immediately read faces and come up with a hit if it has processed the face in its past data or if it detects the same face in the future.
Camera-Based Detection of Fire and LocalizationUpdate the detailed information about 9 Finance Experts Ideas For Preparing For A Business Leadership Transition on the Cattuongwedding.com website. We hope the article's content will meet your needs, and we will regularly update the information to provide you with the fastest and most accurate information. Have a great day!