Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn business administration/finance?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 81 posts

Re: Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn business administration/finance?

#41

Post by jonahbenton »

wtvanhest wrote: post #39
jonahbenton wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely, very few CTOs in my experience understand double entry or know how to read a balance sheet. To their detriment, IMO, but there are all kinds of effective CTOs across all kinds of orgs. But OP was asking for guidance in learning how to engage on those topics- as opposed to communicating about technical things to that audience. Hence the recommendations. I agree about the value of NPV, tho I would argue tha…

People are too quick to recommend accounting and finance books. Or... recommend super complex material because they think the subject is complex. If his/her goal is to learn what it takes to be more effective at the finance piece, they should follow my advice. If they want to go deeper for fun later, they can, but it won’t have as much value as improving the 3 things I mentioned.

Don't necessarily disagree, but the point about what to accrue- I would posit that ground knowledge of both accounting and tech is important. An asset is from a tech perspective is different from an asset from a finance perspective. A given effort towards a specific end may be considered creating an asset from a finance perspective and creating debt from a tech perspective. Conversely, it may be valuable from a finance perspective to classify work as opex that is actually asset building from a tech perspective. The language and semantics don't translate cleanly.

Agree tho they can start in those areas- and of course just talking across domains is infinitely valuable on its own accord. Cheers.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn business administration/finance?

#42

Post by vmurthy »

pottertheotter wrote: post #13
Havoc wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just don't call them footnotes if anyone finance-y is around ;)

Why do you say that?

Not OP but presumably because footnotes are a hack to hide away things you don't want many people to look at [0]. Enron was famous for this and I suspect many fraudulent companies do the same.

[0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2002-02-03/the-fine-...

Re: Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn business administration/finance?

#43

Post by vmurthy »

The second part of your need is interesting. I'm being a bit generic but to speak with CEOs, it would greatly help to know about strategy and competition. It's a loaded term and here's what I would recommend:

1. Michael Porter's Competitive Advantage [0] or Understanding Michael Porter [1]

2. One of the things that really applies well to tech businesses has been Platform Business Model. This book [2] is a good starting point

3. The Lean startup [3] and Hacking Growth [4] round up the tech books that I have benefited from.

3b. Warren Buffet's letters are a classic to learn about businesses and help when you are dealing with CXOs.

4. With these basics in place, I would recommend Stratecherry - the blog and Economist for keeping up with the current developments in the field.

Good luck!

[0] https://www.amazon.com.au/Competitive-Advantage-Creating-Sus...

[1] https://www.amazon.com.au/Understanding-Michael-Porter-Essen...

[2] https://www.amazon.com.au/Platform-Revolution-Networked-Tran...

[3] https://www.amazon.com.au/Lean-Startup-Innovation-Successful...

[4] https://www.amazon.com.au/Hacking-Growth-Fastest-Growing-Com...

FYI, I come from a similar background. Was a techie for 9+ years before switching to an MBA and can personally attest to the materials given above :)

Re: Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn business administration/finance?

#44

Post by conductr »

wtvanhest wrote: post #39
jonahbenton wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely, very few CTOs in my experience understand double entry or know how to read a balance sheet. To their detriment, IMO, but there are all kinds of effective CTOs across all kinds of orgs. But OP was asking for guidance in learning how to engage on those topics- as opposed to communicating about technical things to that audience. Hence the recommendations. I agree about the value of NPV, tho I would argue tha…

People are too quick to recommend accounting and finance books. Or... recommend super complex material because they think the subject is complex. If his/her goal is to learn what it takes to be more effective at the finance piece, they should follow my advice. If they want to go deeper for fun later, they can, but it won’t have as much value as improving the 3 things I mentioned.

I’m a Corp finance guy and agree with your comments more than most on this thread. Very little value in knowing double entry accounting. It’s actually a key difference between most finance and accounting. I don’t even deal with that stuff. I know all about how it works sure, I had to take accounting classes in college but it’s not a routine part of my job and certainly no other executives.

Accrual is important. Mostly because it impacts timing and gives you some levers to adjust to make the financial statements the way you want. Eg depending on your goals, you may want to form a strategy on when to sign a vendor contract.

Financial statements is where it’s at though. And it’s easy to learn from a book. However, what you need to learn, is how this general knowledge fits your company. This is really the difference between good and bad CxOs (and I’ve seen my share of both).

This is a different path. It’s metrics and KPIs. It’s strategy and knowing what’s important for the company. Are you conserving cash, are you growing at all cost, prove you have an ROI on your project, prove you can execute the project as promised, articulate why a project is off the rails (signal risk). A lot of this is financial politics, but if you talk the talk and earn credibility you’ll be seen as has a strong fiduciary over your domain. Also, depending on the size of your company, get a finance guy that reports or has a dotted line to you. If company is too small for that, you can just build a very good relationship with the finance team. I’m my experience, 25%-50% of our job is partnering with other executives; meaning we educate them (comprehension And prep for meetings with other executives/BOD) and we have full scope knowledge of what every other department is doing.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn business administration/finance?

#45

Post by wtvanhest »

conductr wrote: post #44
wtvanhest wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are too quick to recommend accounting and finance books. Or... recommend super complex material because they think the subject is complex. If his/her goal is to learn what it takes to be more effective at the finance piece, they should follow my advice. If they want to go deeper for fun later, they can, but it won’t have as much value as improving the 3 things I mentioned.

I’m a Corp finance guy and agree with your comments more than most on this thread. Very little value in knowing double entry accounting. It’s actually a key difference between most finance and accounting. I don’t even deal with that stuff. I know all about how it works sure, I had to take accounting classes in college but it’s not a routine part of my job and certainly no other executives. Accrual is important. Mostl…

I downplayed the value of the P&L, but your right. If the person ultimately wants to get to a CTO role, I imagine the P&L becomes more important overtime. Knowing when to back a project may come down to knowing whether it impacts the right metric.

The other thing probably worth studying earlier is HC costing. It’s really easy to understand, but often catches directors/vp in non-finance functions off guard.

Basically, timing matters a lot and people make mistakes when asking “can I afford this?”

Re: Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn business administration/finance?

#46

Post by Havoc »

pottertheotter wrote: post #13
Havoc wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just don't call them footnotes if anyone finance-y is around ;)

Why do you say that?

Nobody calls them that in practice so I'd avoid it if trying to sound knowledgable. They're just called notes.

Its also quite common for FS to have actual footnotes (ie in bottom margin of page) in addition to notes.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn business administration/finance?

#47

Post by exdsq »

I work as a software test engineer in crypto, so I thought it’d make sense to learn more about finance the other week. It might be overkill for many but I started studying for the CFA Level 1 and it’s been really interesting so far. Depending on your goals, it might be worth the 300 hours.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn business administration/finance?

#48

Post by rckoepke »

conductr wrote: post #44
wtvanhest wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are too quick to recommend accounting and finance books. Or... recommend super complex material because they think the subject is complex. If his/her goal is to learn what it takes to be more effective at the finance piece, they should follow my advice. If they want to go deeper for fun later, they can, but it won’t have as much value as improving the 3 things I mentioned.

I’m a Corp finance guy and agree with your comments more than most on this thread. Very little value in knowing double entry accounting. It’s actually a key difference between most finance and accounting. I don’t even deal with that stuff. I know all about how it works sure, I had to take accounting classes in college but it’s not a routine part of my job and certainly no other executives. Accrual is important. Mostl…

In your opinion, is a solid understanding of DCF/NPV/IRR/cost of capital somewhat on the more-critical knowledge side for management/executives or somewhat more on the side of less-critical knowledge?
Post reply on HN