Financial Intelligence

The theme of Navigate Academy Module 42 is promoting financial literacy, especially among non-financial managers, and that is the target audience for this Navigate Book Club selection.

Companies expect managers to use financial data to allocate resources and run their departments. But many managers can’t read a balance sheet, wouldn’t recognize a liquidity ratio, and don’t know how to calculate return on investment. Worse, they don’t have any idea where the numbers come from or how reliable they really are. In Financial Intelligence, Karen Berman and Joe Knight teach the basics of finance–but with a twist. Financial reporting, they argue, is as much art as science.

While providing the foundation for a deep understanding of the financial side of business, the book also arms managers with practical strategies for improving their companies’ performance–strategies, such as “managing the balance sheet,” that are well understood by financial professionals but rarely shared with their nonfinancial colleagues.

The book reads easily without dumbing down, and it’s comprehensive. Plus, this is one of Brad Dempsey’s favorite books on managerial accounting! We highly recommend it for all integrators that want to create a financially intelligent company.

Financial Intelligence is Recommended Reading for Navigate Academy Module 42: Financial Structure & Management Reporting.