Scribe Article: UB professor launches new book

UB Professor Releases New Book on Capital Management

BY: CHRIS HOGAN

MANAGING NEWS EDITOR

            When University of Bridgeport Associate Finance professor Jim Sagner released his new book on Nov. 23 2010, entitled Essentials of Working Capital Management, it was the first ever in-depth analytical volume on Capital Management.

            The book which was published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc out of Indianapolis, IN, features different sections when dealing with the concepts of capital management and different ways to finance and manage money in effective ways. Sagner, who has experience in the banking industry for the past 29 years while working with the biggest bank in the Midwest, now part of J.P. Morgan Chase and also with as the Chief Economist for the Maryland Department of Transportation, provides a clear assumption of what the reader should notice about his book.

            “I go through all the elements of working capital management which is the current assets side of the balance sheet and the current liability side of balance sheets,” Sagner said. “I show companies how they can better manage those areas so that they can reduce their stale assets and liabilities and improve their access to cash.”

                There are three chapters that deal with cash and how to control and forecast it along with assisting in setting up banking relations. Sagner argues in that section that businesses aren’t handling their money very well because of new concepts of the banking industry that help develop and manage cash collections that companies don’t use effectively. Moreover, he talks about a simple concept called lock boxing and also fraud prevention techniques for companies to use effectively. Sagner still sees problems between the businesses and banks in their relationship getting things done.

                “I still run into companies that use primitive techniques and I try to help them figure it out which banks to use and how they should pay their banks and which services banks offer and how to make things attractive to banks because companies are having a hard time getting credit from banks. Sagner said.”

            Another facet in the book is a section called International Working Capital which deals with working capital mechanisms in different countries. It states that Americans are still very paper intensive and close to 50 percent of all our transactions come by paper meaning checks unlike other countries do and how U.S. mechanisms compare with other countries mechanisms. UB management professor Arthur McAdams shared his knowledge about information technology and wrote about it in a section in the volume.

            Sagner, has wrote many books in the past, one entitled Financial and Process Metrics for the New Economy which was published in May, 2001 was recognized as one of the most important financial books ever written and the other Essentials of Managing Corporate Cash from Feb, 2003 which he co-written with Michele Allaman-Ward, a highly recognized cash management expert.  The book took him about a year to write and it’s the first in-depth capital management book other than someone from Australia writing an academic text book on it. He sums up a goal that he wants the readers to understand when finished reading it.

            “If you think about it working capital provides absolutely nothing for a company because their debt assets and liabilities and the thing to do as Dell has done so effectively is to drive those commitments and current assets and liabilities close to zero, Sagner said. “If you can do that, you can do way with those debt assets and liabilities on your balance sheet which you will have productive assets.”