Corporate Financial Reporting and Analysis

Corporate Financial Reporting and Analysis: A Global Perspective/3e by David Young and Jacob Cohen is an introductory textbook on financial reporting for MBA students.  This book is intended to offer the rigor and comprehensive coverage required of an MBA text, while at the same time offering an accessible and practical reference for participants in executive programs.  David Young is based at INSEAD Business School in France, and Jacob Cohen is based at MIT Sloan School of Management in the USA. 

This book offers a rigorous, yet accessible, treatment of contemporary financial reporting practice. Examples are drawn from a broad range of companies to illustrate key concepts. Particular emphasis is given to the latitude and flexibility granted to managers in reporting financial performance, and the steps that financial statement readers can take to identify potential trouble areas in the accounts. Topics include the analysis and interpretation of the three principal financial statements, revenue recognition, inventory accounting, receivables and bad debts, accounting for long-term assets, provisions and contingencies, income taxes, and the accounting for mergers and acquisitions.

A unique feature of this book is the seamless way in which it deals with differences in U.S. GAAP and IFRS.  Both regimes are covered simultaneously, i.e. when a topic is discussed, including the relevant journal entries and disclosures, the discussion applies equally to GAAP companies and to IFRS companies. It doesn’t matter whether the company used in a given example is from the U.S., Europe, or elsewhere. Thanks to the ongoing GAAP/IFRS convergence project, the two regimes are close enough to allow for a somewhat generic approach that allows for coverage of both regimes at the same time. In this way, the examples that are covered in the book are relevant to all readers, regardless of which regime dominates in their business environment.

The content of this book has been classroom tested over the past 20 years at INSEAD with the MBA class which has students from 80 different countries.

S. David Young is Professor of Accounting & Control at INSEAD, where he has been since 1989. He holds a PhD from the University of Virginia and is both a Certified Public Accountant (USA) and a Chartered Financial Analyst. His primary areas of expertise are corporate financial reporting and value based management, with works published in a wide variety of academic and professional journals, including Harvard Business Review, Journal of Investing and the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance.
Professor Young is the author or co-author of several books, including EVA and Value Based Management: A Practical Guide to Implementation (McGraw-Hill, 2001), Profits You Can Trust: Spotting and Surviving Accounting Landmines (Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2003), and Attracting Investors: A Marketing Approach to Finding Funds for Your Business (John Wiley & Sons, 2004). His most recent book project is titled Blue Line Management: What Managing for Value Really Means, which should appear in the first half of 2012.
Professor Young is also the recipient of several Outstanding Teaching Awards from the INSEAD MBA program, and the Distinguished Alumni Scholar Award from his undergraduate alma mater, The George Washington University. He has consulted extensively for companies in Europe, the U.S. and Asia, mainly on issues related to value based management and financial analysis.

Professor Jake Cohen teaches courses in Financial and Managerial Accounting, Financial Statements Analysis, Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Restructurings, and Business Law at both INSEAD's Singapore and Fontainebleau campuses.
Prior to joining INSEAD, Professor Cohen was a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Accounting & Control group at the Harvard Business School, where he was a founding member and an accounting professor in the Analytics Program, and a Professor at the Harvard Extension School and Harvard Summer School in Cambridge Massachusetts. At Harvard, Professor Cohen was recognized for outstanding teaching.
Prior to teaching at Harvard for four years, he taught at Syracuse University as an assistant professor and was named 'Professor of the Year' and was selected as the graduation keynote speaker for the school's commencement ceremony. Professor Cohen currently sits on the Syracuse University Accounting Department's Advisory Board.
Professor Cohen received a Bachelors of Science degree in Accounting from Lehigh University, where he graduated with honors, a Master of Sciences degree in Accounting from Syracuse University, where he also graduated with honors, and a Juris Doctor degree in Law from Syracuse University, while on full academic scholarship. Professor Cohen also completed six executive certificates at the Harvard Business School in: Corporate Restructuring, Private Equity, Venture Capital, Financial Innovations, Valuation, and International Managerial Finance.
Prior to his academic career, Professor Cohen worked as a tax accountant at KPMG LLP in Philadelphia and as a mergers & acquisition consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in New York City.