While corporate philosophies and principles may change from country to country, the basics of finance are constants. "Productivity Improvement" introduces those fundamentals and applies them in a Japanese context. First published in Japanese in 1992, "Productivity Improvement" has become a standard treatise on business management. The authors are notable in their fields. Hirotoshi Shibuya is president of Shibuya Kogyo and Hideyuki Kamiryo is dean of the Faculty of Commercial Sciences at Hiroshima Shudo University's Graduate Division.
The first third of the book is an introduction to the fundamentals of business finance. It covers such topics as how to look at a balance sheet, the meaning of the various components, and how to understand such critical concepts as working funds, productivity, financial ratios and break-even points.
Parts 2 and 3 offer case studies of productivity and the application of those basic concepts. Of special interest is the application of the basic principles to Shibuya Kogyo, drawing on the experiences of Shibuya himself and the research by Kamiryo.