Accounting · Finance · Business Judgment

From Results to Decisions

A Practical Primer in Accounting, Finance, and Business Judgment

Financial statements report what happened. The harder work is understanding what changed, why it changed, and what the result means for the next decision.

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Prateek Gupta, PhD, MBA

Front cover of From Results to Decisions by Prateek Gupta

The Book

Move beyond the reported number

From Results to Decisions connects financial statements with the operating activity behind them. It shows how revenue, costs, margins, working capital, cash flow, leverage, and financial risk fit together and how those relationships support business judgment.

Understand the result

Read the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement as connected views of the same business.

Identify what changed

Separate reported movement from the operating causes that produced it.

Follow the consequence

Trace an operating change through profit, cash, the balance sheet, capacity, and financial risk.

Support the decision

Use the evidence to decide what matters, what remains uncertain, and which question deserves attention next.

Who It Is For

A practical bridge for people who use financial information

Business owners

Understand what financial statements imply without needing to prepare them personally.

First time P&L leaders

Connect operating decisions with margin, cash, working capital, and financial capacity.

Consultants and MBA students

Strengthen the financial logic beneath cases, recommendations, and management discussions.

Engineers and technical leaders

Translate quantitative thinking into financial interpretation and business judgment.

How the Book Works

Results become useful when they lead to a better question

Each chapter moves from accessible fundamentals into a deeper financial discussion and then into a real company example. The sequence is consistent throughout the book.

Result Change Operating cause Financial consequence Decision

About the Author

Prateek Gupta, PhD, MBA

Prateek Gupta has more than fifteen years of experience across engineering, turnaround consulting, executive leadership, and finance. His work has included C suite and CFO responsibilities, mergers and acquisitions, operational improvement, and advising businesses under financial pressure.

He has worked at a top five management consulting firm and with large corporate clients, as well as with middle market and owner managed businesses. He earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his PhD from the University of Illinois.

Contact

Contact the author

Use the form for book inquiries, academic or bulk use, speaking and teaching inquiries, consulting questions, or other professional correspondence.

Email correspondence can also be sent to [email protected].