“A book is the most effective weapon against intolerance and ignorance”
Francine likes to read and here are some books on her bookshelves:
Your Strategy Needs a Strategy
Business people keep getting bombarded with this strategy and that strategy. Sorting out what strategy to play when is not always straightforward. Especially when you have a large conglomerate with subsidiaries at different phase of maturity. This book is helpful in providing a framework to think how different types of business environment and company maturity drive the type of strategy that should be implemented. Further, it shows how a strategy palette can be put in place, so a company can adopt different strategies for different parts of its business.
Blue Ocean Strategy
Business leaders are continuously told to be mindful of business rivals. Hundreds of books have been written on competition, being the cost leader, and competing through differentiation. This book takes a different approach on competitive strategy, arguing for the creation of "blue oceans" that is untapped new market spaces ripe from growth. In addition to challenging business leaders to swim for open waters, it provides an actionable framework for changing the way companies do business.
Due Diligence
A comprehensive review of the mergers & acquisitions (M&A) process, this book provides a good framework of what happen before, during, and after an M&A transaction. Starting from the formulation of growth strategy, to sourcing deals, to the engagement and pursuit of a particular deal, to preparation and implementation of due diligence, to assessment of its result and negotiation, to closing and post-deal integration. What sets this book apart from other M&A books is the emphasis it puts on holistic value creation, as oppose to simply performing financial and legal investigation during diligence.
M&A Integration
Many business literature cites 50 to 75% failure statistics when talking about M&A transactions. That is, 50 to 75% of M&A deals failed to achieve its intended deal rationale, usually due to a bad or late integration. This book covers the basics of integration planning and delivery, common pitfalls to watch out for, as well as practical checklists on M&A integration that are useful in preparation for an M&A integration as well as in implementing and monitoring such project.
Getting to Yes
This classic guide to effective negotiation is a book worth reading repeatedly and use as a desk reference for just about anyone. It provides a step-by-step guide to resolve conflicts by achieving mutually acceptable agreements in all sorts of conflicts. From negotiating the sale/purchase of a company to negotiating with your kids, this book laid out a straightforward process to solve disputes without getting angry or taken, including the identification of interests, development of BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement), structuring options, and more. An easy read combined with practical, actionable advice.
Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements
This book outlined Warren Buffett's approach in reading financial statements for investing purposes. It discuss how the master investor looks at critical line items from the income statement, the balance sheet, and the cash flow statement. The book goes over the impact of R&D costs and debt to a company's attractiveness as potential investment. It spells out the financial ratios and calculations that Buffett use to identify companies with high durable competitive advantage - which he believes to be winning long term investments. Lastly, it explains the types of companies Buffett avoids no matter how cheap the investment asking price is.
Reinventing American Healthcare
This is a book that every healthcare professional should read. In this book, Dr. Emanuel goes through the different facets of healthcare: providers (hospital & clinics), physicians, health insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, medical device companies, medical malpractice insurance, policy makers, and more. He explained how U.S. healthcare system came to be (a 200+ years process) and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka PPACA aka Obamacare). Specifically, the goals of the law to increase access coverage, lower cost, and increase quality; as well as different considerations and their impacts are worth spending more time in digesting the material. This a great book for anyone trying to understand the U.S. health care system, its stakeholders, and their agendas.
Lean Startup
Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for 1+ person in a garage to a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. The common pattern here is the need to discover a new successful path to a sustainable business. This book advocates for more efficient use of capital and effective use of human creativity. It encourages rapid experimentations, shorter product development cycles, measuring actual progress (as opposed to vanity metrics), and learning about customers' needs and wants. The book provides a framework for companies of all sizes to shift directions with agility, promoting continuous testing of visions and adjustments. A decent scientific approach to creating and managing innovative companies.
Business Model Generation
An excellent handbook for business leaders and entrepreneurs looking to change outmoded business models and design tomorrow's enterprises. It walks through powerful strategic ideas and tools to make them easy to implement with any organization. From common business model patterns to concepts and interpretation, this book taught its readers to systematically design a game-changing business model from an existing one. It also challenges business people to understand customers, distribution channels, partners, revenue streams, costs, and core value propositions deeply; for the purpose of generating innovative insights.
Deals from Hell: M&A Lessons that Rise Above the Ashes
Many M&A transactions destroy value for the buyer's shareholders. In this book, Robert Bruner, one of the thought leaders in M&A, discusses mishaps in 12 cases of M&A failures in detail. He went through what went wrong and why, and offers advice to companies looking to successfully navigate their own M&A deals. I learned the best ways to analyze, design, and implement M&A programs from this book - especially deriving value from the cautionary discussions of common pitfalls associated with this field.