Performance management, the process of assessing progress toward achieving predetermined goals, assists companies in achieving their strategic goals. This book, written by Gary Cokins, a pioneer in the field, provides an overview of the current trends in performance management. Unlike other books on this topic, Performance Management is not a dry recipe or "how-to" guide; it provides a detailed discussion of the relevant aspects of performance management-its integration of multiple management methodologies and behavioral change management to overcome managers' and employees' natural resistance to change.

With the subprime market in crisis and its effects trickling down to Wall Street, this timely book provides a framework on how financial institutions can improve their credit assessment system. A comprehensive new credit risk framework is needed, a hybrid approach that combines the best that technology can offer with expert human judgment. Clark Abrahams and Mingyuan Zhang's Credit Risk Assessment: The New Lending System for Borrowers, Lenders, and Investors presents this framework for small business and consumer lending and explains how it can be implemented to improve a financial institution's credit assessment system.

The book discusses how a comprehensive credit assessment framework can extend existing credit scoring to embrace all relevant factors and business contexts so that lenders can classify credit risk in a more effective, transparent, and forward-looking manner. Various practical examples show how to implement the new framework. Credit Risk Assessment promotes a new generation of credit models that ensures that true risk is captured and that a loan is affordable over its life, which has obvious implications for both intervening in the mortgage crisis and preventing future financial disruption. This book is a valuable reference for lending and credit practitioners in both developed and developing countries, where credit products are rapidly evolving.