Stanford Executive Briefings: Profitability and Finance

The Stanford Video Guide to Financial Statements

Financial statements need not be an impenetrable web of numbers. Analysis can be both simple and logical. Whether you are a business investor, lender, supplier, customer, or acquirer, this video training program can help you develop the business skills to perform basic financial analysis that can save you from painful losses and win you big profits.

Don't Just Set Prices: Manage Them Strategically

When customers reject your price, it is often thought that the price is too high. But according to Tom Nagle, this may not be true. Price levels are only the visible "tip of the iceberg" of pricing strategy. Nagle explains that in order to get customers to pay for value, you have to do more than just set a value-based price.

How Debt Makes Companies Perform Better

Corporate finance has risen to the forefront of the tools that business leaders employ to create value and contribute to economic efficiency, productivity and profitability. Explaining the balance sheet in straightforward, logical terms, Dr. George Parker details a forward-thinking perspective for weighing risks against opportunities.

Creating the Future

Never has there been a more exciting or more hazardous time to be at the helm of a corporation. How do you stay out of the band of mediocrity and position your company to become an architect of industry revolution? The answer, says Gary Hamel, is to reinvent who you are in meaningful ways, moving beyond incremental change to industry reconception.

Numbers DO Lie

All too frequently firms measure the wrong variables, assign the wrong people to do the measuring, and grant too much credibility to the numbers generated. Christopher Meyer details a framework for identifying what practices need to be changed, clarifying who should measure what, and showing how to align measurement with corporate strategy.

How Great Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People

Dr. Charles O'Reilly argues that the source of sustained competitive advantage already exists within every organization. O'Reilly's prescription for an overheated labor market: abandon the obsession with hiring high-priced stars, instead motivating ordinary people to build a great company and achieve extraordinary results.

The Exceptional Leader

Jack Zenger believes that average managers can develop the traits shared by exceptional leaders—traits that improve retention, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and bottom-line profitability. Based on the best practices of leading organizations, he offers ten specific recommendations proven to enhance leadership development.

Finding Untapped Growth in Existing Markets

Managers are under constant pressure to grow, but it is often difficult to find new avenues of growth within an existing line of business. In order to win in the marketplace, it is essential to understand which customer behaviors make and lose money for your organization. Dr. James Hollingshead offers specific tools for seeing existing markets differently and uncovering hidden opportunities for growth.

People-First Management

Daniel Amos follows two straightforward management principles: he sets clear expectations, and he listens to employee concerns. His focus is communication followed by action. Amos ensures that employees experience an evenhanded response to their input, and he provides a reward system that gives them a vested interest in the profitability of the company.

Building the Market-Focused Culture

Truly market-focused organizations must pursue more than a sound market strategy. Professor Hayagreeva Rao details the six levers of culture building, and explains how aligning these factors reduces employee stress and turnover, creating a self-selected, productive workforce that is in touch with the demands of potential customers.

Doing Well and Doing Good

Jeffrey Swartz firmly believes in commerce, and that profits for Wall Street are necessary—but not sufficient. It's no longer enough to be solely focused on the bottom line. Timberland is proof that profit-minded companies can "do well" for shareholders and "do good" for communities.

A System in Crisis: Finding a Solution for Health Care in America

Dr. Robert Pearl believes that we can significantly lower the costs and raise the quality of America's health care, but he knows the solutions won't come easily. His goal is a health care system that provides every patient with the same kind of care that each of us would want for our family, our friends—and ourselves.