Books about Cost based from Amazon.com

The U.S. health care system is in crisis. At stake are the quality of care for millions of Americans and the financial well-being of individuals and employers squeezed by skyrocketing premiums-not to mention the stability of state and federal government budgets.

In Redefining Health Care, internationally renowned strategy expert Michael Porter and innovation expert Elizabeth Teisberg reveal the underlying-and largely overlooked-causes of the problem, and provide a powerful prescription for change.

The authors argue that participants in the health care system have competed to shift costs, accumulate bargaining power, and restrict services, rather than create value for patients. This zero-sum competition takes place at the wrong level-among health plans, networks, and hospitals-rather than where it matters most, in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of specific health conditions. Redefining Health Care lays out a breakthrough framework for redefining health care competition based on patient value. With specific recommendations for hospitals, doctors, health plans, employers, and policy makers, this book shows how to move to a positive-sum competition that will unleash stunning improvements in quality and efficiency.

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Price: $12.96 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Introduce your students to the dynamic, exciting nature of cost management as this edition demonstrates how today's conditions consistently require change in cost management systems. Hansen/Mowen/Guan's COST MANAGEMENT: ACCOUNTING AND CONTROL, Sixth Edition, first covers functional-based cost and control and then activity-based cost systems, giving students the understanding and skills to manage any cost management system. This edition's expansive coverage and consistent attention to technical detail provides a thorough, well-researched foundation for learning. It addresses the most recent influential topics and emerging processes affecting the discipline, including a new chapter on lean accounting and a focus on technology tools that positively impact internal costing practices..
Price: $153.70 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The insights that Jonathan provides into the workings of the cost-based optimizer will make a DBA a better designer, and a Developer a better SQL coder. Both groups will become better troubleshooters

— Thomas Kyte, VP (Public Sector), Oracle Corporation

In the classroom, activity-based costing (ABC) looks like a great way to manage a company's limited resources. But executives who have tried to implement ABC in their organizations on any significant scale have often abandoned the attempt in the face of rising costs and employee irritation. "Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing" is the solution to the problems associated with large-scale ABC implementation. In this book, Kaplan and Anderson offer a revised model where managers can estimate the resource demands imposed by each transaction, product, or customer, rather than rely on time-consuming and costly employee surveys. In their new model, Kaplan and Anderson focus on the two parameters managers need to estimate: how much it costs per time unit to supply resources to the business activities (the total overhead expenditure of a department divided by the total number of minutes of employee time available) and how much time it takes to carry out one unit of each kind of activity (as estimated or observed by the manager). Rather than endlessly updating and maintaining ABC data, this book with allow managers to spend their time addressing the deficiencies the model reveals: inefficient processes, unprofitable products and customers, and excess capacity. Kaplan and Anderson lead the discussion of Time-Driven ABC in the first seven chapters, followed by individual cases studies of actual implementations by Acorn consultants in diverse settings..
Price: $24.70 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Two of the most innovative thinkers in the field present a work that represents the single best resource for understanding and implementing activity-based cost management. Kaplan and Cooper reveal that most companies don't know how to measure accurately, influence, or understand the fundamental cost drivers in their businesses. They then provide a detailed and comprehensive blueprint that will enable managers to make better decisions and to promote organizational learning and improvement.

Cost and Effect takes the management, finance, and accounting fields to an entirely new level, as the authors demonstrate how the principles of activity-based costing and other advanced cost management techniques, such as target and kaizen costing, can drive business performance. Using lively examples from a variety of leading companies worldwide--including Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, AT&T, the Swedish wire manufacturer Kanthal, Kirin Beer, and Procter & Gamble--they show how to create integrated, knowledge-based systems that provide meaningful information on current and past performance.

The innovation systems described in Cost and Effect will help you: Determine where improvements in quality, efficiency, and productivity will have the highest payoffs. Assist front-line employees in their learning and improvement activities. Make better product mix and capital investment decisions. Negotiate more effectively on price, product features, quality, delivery, and service to promote win-win relationships with your customers. Choose low-cost suppliers who are truly low cost, not just low price. Design products and services that meet customers' expectations--and that can be produced and delivered at a profit. Integrate your activity-based cost system into reporting and budgeting processes to reveal the sources of excess capacity.

Everyone involved in running a business--from general managers and strategic planners to financial executives, IT professionals, and operations managers--must read this book to learn how innovative cost and performance measurement systems can enhance their organizational profitability and performance..
Price: $9.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]

As a home-based entrepreneur you have the ability to offer a superb product or service, but without the know-how to market your enterprise, customers and clients will never beat a path to your door. That's a major reason why most businesses fail. This book will give you that know-how, and show you how easy it is to use the promotional secrets of the pros to achieve success -- even on a limited budget. Discover how to: Gain free publicity, promote your business, and produce ads that sizzle. John McLain is a veteran journalist, magazine editor, copywriter, and public relations practitioner who has been a publicist and national media consultant to 55 colleges and universities. He lives on Whidbey Island in Washington state..
Price: $12.39 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Are your employees qualified?

Looking for qualified people to do competent work? How do you ensure that the people you hire can do the job right? An ever-increasing number of organizations are asking the same questions

Certification planning is the answer and Performance-Based Certification is the key. This is the only book on the market that addresses the growing need to monitor the qualifications of employees. You'll be able to quickly customize the certification tests and other job aids provided on the accompanying disk.

Create a certification program within your organization to:

Instill confidence that employees, members, or suppliers are qualified to meet the needs of your customers

Ensure that your workforce is trained and competent to their job

Make your hiring process more cost effective and legally defendable

Recognize competnece and consistency of your employees

Once you've identified the need for a certification program, what's the next step? All of the answers are here!.
Price: $12.87 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Praise for Activity-Based Cost Management

"Business leaders are always being presented with proposals to ‘improve’ corporate performance. Cokins turns ABC/M into an objective tool for forecasting the actual costs in an improved environment. Every executive should follow Gary's methods to predict benefits before risking company and career on a multimillion-dollar program."––Hugh D. Pinkus, Executive Consultant, Industrial Sector, Business Innovation Services, IBM Global Services

"Gary Cokins advances Activity-Based Cost Management the next step. In addition to providing the roadmap for ABC/M implementation success, Gary reveals the real strategic applications of ABC/M."––Joe Kosinski, Director, Corporate Manufacturing Accounting, Abbott Laboratories

"ABC/M is lucky to have Gary Cokins as its advocate. Gary has the gift to take the concept that many view as complex and reduce it to its simplest terms, and he has done so again here. After reading this book, you will have an understanding of the power of ABC/M as a tool to understand costs and make better business decisions."––John F. Morrow, CPA, AICPA Vice President, The New Finance

"Gary Cokins has helped light the way for cost and profitability analysis practitioners for many years. His wit and vivid metaphors engage a broad audience of managers and executives, helping generate not only new levels of understanding but also genuine enthusiasm for applying ‘accounting’ tools to improve bottom-line performance."––Tim Jordheim, Manager, ABC/M Center of Expertise, Cargill, Inc.

"Making sense of complex end-to-end business processes can hinder timely and substantive improvements. This thorough and engaging book shows how processes can be reduced to activity-level building blocks where resource consumption relationships can be identified and evaluated. Insights gained from these evaluations can then be used to motivate and prioritize changes that bring actual process-related costs into balance with other organizational goals such as productivity, cycle time, quality, and customer satisfaction."––Hal Thilmony, Senior Manager, Financial Business Process Improvement, Cisco Systems.
Price: $12.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Publisher: Edition: first.
Price: $44.90 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A complete toolkit for implementation of Earned Value Management

Performance-Based Earned Value uniquely shows project managers how to effectively integrate technical, schedule, and cost objectives by improving earned value management (EVM) practices. Providing innovative guidelines, methods, examples, and templates consistent with capability models and standards, this book approaches EVM from a practical level with understandable techniques that are applicable to the management of any project.

Clear and unambiguous instructions explain how to incorporate EVM with key systems engineering, software engineering, and project management processes such as establishing the technical or quality baseline, requirements management, using product metrics, and meeting success criteria for technical reviews. Detailed information is included on linking product requirements, project work products, the project plan, and the Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB), as well as correlating technical performance measures (TPM) with EVM. With straightforward instructions on how to use EVM on a simple project, such as building a house, and on complex projects, such as high-risk IT and engineering development projects, it is the only book that includes excerpts from the PMI's Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), CMMI, the EVM System standard, systems engineering standards, federal acquisition regulations, and Department of Defense guides.

Performance-Based Earned Value allows both novices and experienced project managers, including project manager of suppliers and customers in the commercial and government sectors; software and systems engineering process improvement leaders; CMMI appraisers; PMI members; and IEEE Computer Society members to:

• Incorporate product requirements and planned quality into the PMB
• Conduct an Integrated Baseline Review
• Analyze performance reports
• Perform independent assessments and predictive analysis
• Ensure that key TPMs are selected, monitored, and reported
• Identify the right success criteria for technical reviews
• Develop techniques for monitoring and controlling supplier performance
• Integrate risk management with EVM
• Comply with government acquisition policies and regulations

Written by Paul Solomon and Ralph Young, internationally recognized industry experts, Performance-Based Earned Value is constructed from guidance in standards and capability models for EVM, systems engineering, software engineering, and project management. It is the complete guide to EVM, invaluable in helping students prepare for the PMI-PMP exam with practical examples and templates to facilitate understanding, and in guiding project professionals in the private and public sectors to use EVM on complex projects..
Price: $49.44 [Notify me when price goes down.]