tailieunhanh - BUSINESS AT THE SPEED OF THOUGHT: USING A DIGITAL NERVOUS SYSTEM

When you buy an existing business, you are assuming responsibility for an existing customer base. You are most concerned with the ability of the business to continue earning profits. The price you choose to pay for this business, therefore, is more related to the business' past profit earning record. One commonly accepted way of evaluating the business is projecting its profits for the next three years based on its last three years and discounting the present value (using present value tables) to this year. This is assuming that you expect to get your investment back within three years. You. | file C Documents 20and 20Settings Administrator 20- 20BUSINESS 20AT 20THE 20SPEED 20OF BUSINESS AT THE SPEED OF THOUGHT by bill Gates ALSO By BILL GATES The Road Ahead BUSINESS AT THE SPEED OF THOUGHT USING A DIGITAL NERVOUS SYSTEM BILL GATES WITH COLLINs HEMINGWAY 0 VMNER BOOKS A Time Warner Company To my wife Melinda and my daughter Jennifer Many of the product names referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright D 1999 by William H. Gates III All rights reserved. Warner Books Inc 1271 Avenue of the Americas New York NY 10020 Visit our Web site at 0 A Time Warner Company Printed in the United States of America First Printing March 1999 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN 0-446-52568-5 LC 99-60040 Text design by Stanley S. Drate lFolio Graphics Co Inc Except as file C Documents 20and 20Settings 20AT 20THE 20SPEED 20OF 1 of 392 12 28 2005 5 28 51 PM file C Documents 20and 20Settings Administrator 20- 20BUSINESS 20AT 20THE 20SPEED 20OF indicated artwork is by Gary Carter Mary Feil-jacobs Kevin Feldhausen Michael Moore and Steve Winard. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I first want to thank my collaborator Collins Hemingway for his help in synthesizing and developing the material in this book and for his overall management of this project. I want to thank four CEOs who read a late draft of the manuscript and offered valuable thoughts on how to make it more meaningful for business leaders Paul O Neill Alcoa Ivan Seidenberg Bell Atlantic Tony Nicely GEICO Insurance and Ralph Larsen Johnson Johnson. Details on the use of technology by business and public agencies came from worldwide travel and research by Collins and by Jane Glasser. Barbara Leavitt Evelyn Vasen and Ken Linarelli researched one or more chapters. The book gained from the careful editing of Erin O Connor during manuscript development. Anne Schott served as combination research .