Narrative and Numbers

Aswath Damodaran is the Kerschner Family Chair in Finance Education and professor of finance at New York University's Stern School of Business. He is the author of Applied Corporate Finance, Fourth Edition (2014), Investment Valuation: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of Any Asset, Third Edition (2012), The Little Book of Valuation: How to Value a Company, Pick and Stock and Profit (2011), and Damodaran on Valuation: Security Analysis for Investment and Corporate Finance, Second Edition (2006).

How can a company that has never turned a profit have a multibillion dollar valuation? Why do some start-ups attract large investments while others do not? Aswath Damodaran, finance professor and experienced investor, argues that the power of story drives corporate value, adding substance to numbers and persuading even cautious investors to take risks. In business, there are the storytellers who spin compelling narratives and the number-crunchers who construct meaningful models and accounts. Both are essential to success, but only by combining the two, Damodaran argues, can a business deliver and sustain value. Through a range of case studies, Narrative and Numbers describes how storytellers can better incorporate and narrate numbers and how number-crunchers can calculate more imaginative models that withstand scrutiny. Narrative and Numbers reveals the benefits, challenges, and pitfalls of weaving narratives around numbers and how one can best test a story's plausibility

Preface1. A Tale of Two Tribes2. Tell Me a Story3. The Elements of Storytelling4. The Power of Numbers5. Number-Crunching Tools6. Building a Narrative7. Test-Driving a Narrative8. From Narratives to Numbers9. Numbers to Value10. Improving and Modifying Your Narrative—the Feedback Loop11. Narrative Alterations—the Real World Intrudes12. News and Narratives13. Go Big—the Macro Story14. The Corporate Life Cycle15. The Managerial Challenge16. The EndgameNotesIndex