Enterprise Rich Enterprise Poor – now available for order/purchase
19 Aug, by
Hi Friends,
Finally, the long awaited book “Enterprise Rich Enterprise” is now available for order.
You can either purchase from Kinokuniya Takashimaya Singapore or order direct from me. Just drop me line at mtclee@singnet.com.sg.
In this blog, I shall share the Preface of the book for a better understanding of what new knowledge you can gather and implement immeditely in your company.
Preface
“Enterprise Rich, Enterprise Poor” is my third corporate finance book which focuses on the detailed implementation aspects of my first two books,
- The Essence of Corporate Cashflow Sustainability, launched in June 2022
- Corporate Growth & Cashflow Sustainability, launched in January 2024.
The sub-title of the book “A Triangulation of the Corporate Enterprise” refers to the concept of a company’s journey from being “Enterprise Poor“ (lacking both cashflow and strategy) to “Enterprise Mediocre” (possessing only one) and then to “Enterprise Rich” (mastering both).
Cashflow Sustainability and sustainable Corporate Growth are two huge unresolved areas in corporate finance and strategic operations management for which I have provided solutions in my first two books. Without these areas resolved, companies remain “Enterprise Poor” in both cashflows and corporate growth!
Recognizing that the main difficulties lie in the detailed implementation of what I have expounded, I decided to write this manual, which explains step-by-step how these two frameworks are to be developed and established.
While this manual is largely for finance leaders of enterprises, big and small, it is also useful, albeit, necessary for all finance staff, marketing and sales managers, senior management, and the board to be familiar with what I have detailed in this book. Admittedly, while the CEO and Board are indeed responsible for the sustainable growth of the company under their charge, the finance leader is the one most familiar with corporate finance and will have to take the lead in implementing the frameworks.
I shall begin this discourse by explaining what it takes to ensure sustainability of corporate growth, which every enterprise must seek to achieve. Obviously, this will entail the setting up of a cashflow sustainability framework first.
The diagram below delineates that corporate growth does not happen by itself. It requires two main ingredients which must be ingrained in the minds of top management and the Board . They are:
- Adequate working knowledge of accounting, finance and investments (AFI), marketing, sales and operations (MSO), and strategic planning and management (SPM).
- The linkages among these three domains.
This manual will explain and enhance these two ingredients so that top management and the Board will appreciate that they are on the right track.
Chapter 1 of this handbook provides an overview of how a company’s corporate growth is progressing by examining its current set of financial statements; what to look for in the company’s Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss statement, and Cashflow Statement. I shall also explain how to assess the future trend of the company’s growth by analyzing the same statements over a three-year period.
Chapter 2 provides a bird’s eye view of the essence of cashflow sustainability. This sets the stage for the step-by-step implementation approach in subsequent chapters.
Chapters 3 through 6 detail the step-by-step implementation process. It follows the path of the ERAA (Economic Resources Approach to Accounting) concept, which I promulgated in my first book “The Essence of Corporate Cashflow Sustainability”. ERAA starts with the funding aspect of economic resources, capital structure (equity & debt), then to an appropriate allocation of assets (fixed assets, investments, working capital), next to using these assets in operations to generate the results in the Profit & Loss Statement (sales, gross profit, overheads, interest and tax expenses) and ending in the assessment of how cash resources are managed in the Cashflow Statement (both period and trend).
Chapter 7 continues with how sustainable corporate growth can be achieved after a sustainable cashflow framework is established as expounded in my second book “Corporate Growth & Cashflow Sustainability”. This chapter is important for senior management to understand so that they can guide the finance leader in preparing the groundwork and participate in strategic planning and management.
The finance leader is in the best position to organize this framework together with Marketing, Sales, and Operations (MSO) senior staffs, guided by the COO and CEO. Chapters 7 and 10 detail this critical area step-by-step. They also discuss the linkages between corporate planning and its impacts on Accounting, Finance and Investment (AFI) domain. This enables senior management and the Board to appreciate an integrated and wholesome picture of company’s eco-system in corporate growth initiatives.
In Chapter 13 (Enterprise Rich, Enterprise Poor), I explained how an enterprise starts by being poor strategically and cashflow-wise (without both frameworks) and progresses to being rich (when both frameworks are installed).
To enable the 2 Frameworks to be implemented effectively, I have included major corporate finance topics such as Shareholder Value (detailed analysis for growth) in Chapter 11 and Board Directorship & Issues (for first time directors, how to turn around a company in decline, and strategic growth initiatives) in Chapter 12, These are the topics which will inevitably surface for action during or post Framework implementation.
For the first time, the frameworks for closing the 2 huge finance and operations gaps mentioned earlier are available, enabling practitioners to achieve corporate growth sustainably within a Cashflow Sustainability Framework, and with distinctive confidence!
In conclusion, I am grateful to all my participants in my corporate training (in public listed companies) and in my Masterclasses, especially “The Finance Managers’ Masterclass (in its 38th Run at this writing) for their fervent support. Both my profound corporate exposures and my deep learning and training experiences have enabled me to gather new knowledge, overcome huge challenges, and design new solutions in this exciting field of corporate finance and management. “Enterprise Rich, Enterprise Poor “ encapsulates this profound knowledge and practice, which the Board, senior executives and other professionals can now tap into to enhance their oversight responsibilities, personal professional growth and delivery!
Michael Matthew Lee
Author
The Essence of Corporate Cashflow Sustainability, June 2022
Corporate Growth & Cashflow Sustainability, Jan 2024
9th August 2025
