Week 13 Reading Reflection

What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 

I actually loved the section on Valuation Methods.  I thought that the table 14.3 was very illustrative of the different methods and their key takeaway for future valuations. 

Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

In the “analyzing the business” section (pg. 511) the author talks about some of the different pitfalls that a small company must take into consideration over and above what a large company would.  Perhaps this is my emotional bias (or perhaps I’ve worked at enough ‘large’ companies) but the four examples that were provided were extremely qualitative in my opinion.  There was little substance to them and to be honest in some examples (like Management Depth) I’m not sure that there is a straight line advantage between simply having MORE degrees of skills.

If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

Still no questions; tis week 13 now and not one comment back to me answering a question that I’ve had.  Nor any acknowledgement of the fact that I’m protesting this portion of the assignment.  This will be in my final reflection as a gap in the class.  Don’t ask me to ask questions if no one ever intends to respond.

Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

Going back to the confusion I had on Analyzing the business I have to say that I think the author is flat out wrong in this section.  I’ll take the example of insufficient controls that was illustrated as a limitation of a small business. However, that is not inherent as a concern; many small business ventures that then grow rapidly were built along a mission of control.  Look at the rise of Facebook; part of their rapid growth and loyal fan base was because of the controls that Zuckerberg put in place at the beginning. Not to mention the other side of the coin; looking at mortgage servicing companies like Washington Mutual, Country Wide and even JP Morgan Chase that had plenty of capital and depth of management and yet still lacked the appropriate controls (negligently so) causing a financial collapse in 2008.  Compare a smaller airline in Southwest versus American or United and how their size and controls allowed them to be financially stable for more than 50 years as opposed to their larger peer groups that are consistently bankrupt and under profit.