[.ca] The ValueReporting Revolution: Moving Beyond the ... (ISBN 0471398799)

From Amazon.co.uk:
Some readers might find it hard to rustle up enthusiasm for The Value Reporting Revolution--Moving Beyond the Earnings Game for at least two reasons. One, the cover bears the logo of PriceWaterhouseCoopers which, however pre-eminent it is, remains a firm of accountants. Two, it is written by four of its number. The knee-jerk reaction would be unfair though. When it can stay away from jargon and cheerleading, this is a surprisingly enjoyable look at the business world and its principal driving forces. It cannot be often that such a volume bears comparisons with the works of Lewis Carroll and George Orwell, but in its discussion of the value of sell-side analysis they touch upon a corporate nerve becoming more raw by the day. In doing so, the authors subject to close scrutiny the independence of such analysts at investment banks and find that it doesn't pass the test. Analysts have had to adjust to the information they give so that it meets investor needs without offending their employer's clients. As a result, the meaning of the language with which they work has changed significantly. "Hold" now means "sell" while only a "strong buy" really means "buy". Lewis Carroll did something similar with Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass, and George Orwell with "Newspeak" in 1984, placing the PWC team in good literary company. "Corporate executives can decide to board the starship Internet ... or they can sit stoically in their caves, in effect chiselling disclosures on tablets of stone," it says in the chapter entitled "Can You See Clearly Now?". Someone with an ear for language and the ability to see the nub of the point wrote that. --Brian Bollen

Show performance numbers and let the Market decide worth:
The PricewaterhouseCoopers Valuereporting initiative is attempting to move business reporting beyond the basic statement of earnings and is trying to add the intangible assests of value to the bottom line. The authors here give a great discourse on the initiative and its goals, with good humor and very open discussion, detail how things are currently done (and the dangers inherant for individual investors), why things need to be shaken up (else why a revolution), and the plan for doing so. Very rarely do you find a book on accounting that is a pleasure to read, but this is one of those books

Good "second book" on accounting reform:
If you want to learn about accounting scams, you probably need Mulford and Comiskey, The Financial Numbers Game. But for a broader view of the virtues and limits of accounting, Eccles and company have a lot to offer. You can skip or skim the somewhat overhyped stuff about the "ValueRevolution" itself (note that three of the authors come from PricewaterhouseCoopers, where they seem to be having some trouble with their space bar, or spacebar). Keep your best brain cells for chapters three through eight, where you get a look at the earnings obsession -- and just as useful, a suggestion of what investors really need and want. Note that one of the co-authors (Robert H. Herz) is the new head of the Financial Accounting Standards Board).

Fantastic ! A must read ! Breakthrough thinking !:
I have purchased several books on amazon.com, but I must say that this is one of the best ones I have read so far ! This is exactly the sort of book management in companies worldwide should be reading ! I live and work in Tokyo, and I think the Japanese public companies here could learn so much from this book ! Corporate reporting here is very poor, especially in the banking sector(horrendous !), and investors do not take them seriously anymore. Public companies here should improve their corporate reporting and utilize the capital markets more, and the first thing they need to do is to regain the trust of their shareholders. In other words, they should read this book cover to cover right away ! The people who worked on this book, like Mr. Matthew Wissell, who leads the Value Reporting practice in PricewaterhouseCoopers' New York office, should be highly commended for such a fine piece of work !

Fantastic ! A must read ! Breakthrough thinking !:
I have purchased several books on amazon.com, but I must say that this is one of the best ones I have read so far ! This is exactly the sort of book management in companies worldwide should be reading ! I live and work in Tokyo, and I think the Japanese public companies here could learn so much from this book ! Corporate reporting here is very poor, especially in the banking sector(horrendous !), and investors do not take them seriously anymore. Public companies here should improve their corporate reporting and utilize the capital markets more, and the first thing they need to do is to regain the trust of their shareholders. In other words, they should read this book cover to cover right away ! The people who worked on this book, like Mr. Matthew Wissell, who leads the Value Reporting practice in PricewaterhouseCoopers' New York office, should be highly commended for such a fine piece of work !

A Call to Arms:
"ValueReporting" smoothly describes many broken financial reporting processes, including "whispering", a time-consuming process that CFOs play with analysts, where CFOs "whisper" their earnings expectations to the analyst, making the analysts appear intelligent. A great deal for the analyst cause they don't have to do any real analysis. If the CFO does not play this game, they risk the wrath of Wall Street. The problem with this is that it is in violation of the spirit (if not the law) of the yet to be enforced SEC Fair Disclosure Act which states that Sally Q. Public gets to know material information the same time that John Q. Analyst does. "ValueReporting" does offer a practical solution through XBRL technology. As a member of XBRL.org I strongly agree with the authors that if business reporting, both financial and non-financial, is standardized, Web technologies are in place to distribute this information uniformly to all investors and in a richer format than at present. With the gentle prodding of regulatory agencies like the SEC and FDIC, this will happen sooner rather than later. Let's hope that SEC Chairman Unger reads this book, and fast. For me as a consultant and a technologist "who can spell XBRL", The ValueReporting Revolution was a call to arms to apply my knowledge to the inequities of financial reporting. Helping clients sell their wares over the Web is nice, but to level the financial playing field for small companies as well as large, for the small investor as well as the institutional, is ennobling. And forcing Wall Street analysts to actually work for a living, would be, well, just icing on the cake.