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Phil Young is a corporate education consultant and former MBA professor with over 30 years of experience designing and teaching seminars and education programs in finance and strategy. He is also an active member of the Duke Corporate Education Global Learning Resource Network. His clients have included leading global companies (Google, Microsoft, IBM, ABInBev, GE Aviation, American Express, MasterCard, Verizon, AT&T) in a wide variety of industries including telecommunications, IT, fast moving consumer goods, banking and finance, durable goods manufacturing, consulting and digital services. He has taught courses for these companies in over 30 countries around the world. Phil received a B.A. from the University of Hawaii, a Master's degree in international relations from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in economics from New York University.
Reviewed by Randy B. Lichtman for Readers' Favorite
In reading Buy Low, Sell High: The Simplicity of Business Finance by Dr. Philip Young, I considered it from three perspectives: Businessperson, teacher of business, and the non-financial student learning finance. From all three perspectives I found it to be a very solidly crafted book which explains financial principles in fairly easy to understand terms. The first five chapters especially take the time to break down the principles of finance very effectively, giving examples and making the ideas very easy to understand. When I teach business courses, I can see how I can integrate some of the explanations into my own classes.
The structure of opening the chapter with questions to look for and then answering them at the end were also very effective in focusing the reader on some of the important points. The illustrations have more of a hand drawn look to them, with lines looking uneven—I would have preferred a more professional design. I understand the author is trying for a more personalized look, but I would have chosen differently in regards to the drawings. I like the exercises provided by the author, but would suggest the answers be placed at the end of the chapter so the reader will try to do the exercise without having the answer right next to the exercise.
Overall, I would recommend Buy Low, Sell High as an excellent book especially for managers who would like to increase their financial knowledge with a lighter approach to finance. The book definitely shows the experience of a lecturer/instructor in a very interesting narrative as opposed to a dry finance textbook. The book can be a very good supplement in an entrepreneurship course.
