Narrative and Numbers

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.

How to connect business value to story.

Damodaran Aswath :

Aswath Damodaran (MBA, PhD, Finance, UCLA) holds the Kerschner Family Chair in Finance Education and is Professor of Finance at New York University's Stern School of Business. His books include Damodaran on Valuation: Security Analysis for Investment and Corporate Finance, Second Edition (Wiley, 2006), The Little Book of Valuation: How to Value a Company, Pick and Stock and Profit (Wiley, 2011),and our own 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 a Stock and Profit (2011), and Damodaran on Valuation: Security Analysis for Investment and Corporate Finance, Second Edition (2006).

David Foster, CEO, Business Valuation Resources:
Damodaran takes us to the place where Joseph Campbell, Warren Buffett, and the best quantitative analyses of Nassim Taleb intersect, and his journey uncovers new value and risk missed by analysts who bias themselves by relying solely on storytelling or number-crunching. It's a hero's journey best supported by humility—and this first-person account of Aswath's own evolving narratives, analyses, and valuations of Alibaba, Amazon, Uber, Theranos, Ferrari, and more. He may have started as a quant, but Damodaran's now one of the most balanced analysts—and wonderful business and financial storytellers—writing and teaching today.

Michael Mauboussin, Head of Global Financial Strategies, Credit Suisse:
No one has contributed more to the craft of valuation than Aswath Damodaran. In Narrative and Numbers, he correctly shows that you can't understand the stock without the story. After Damodaran's eye-opening tour, you will forever appreciate the vital contribution of human nature to number-crunching.

Stephen Penman, author, Accounting for Value:
Damodaran, instructor to many on valuation, clearly demonstrates that quantitative valuation formulas are not sufficient: they must be applied with a more qualitative narrative about the business. But qualitative analysis has its dangers, not the least that we insert our own biases into the narrative. Damodaran nicely weaves stories into the more formal quantitative analysis, with check and balances that yield a more confident valuation.

Thomas E. Copeland, University of San Diego:
Professor Damodaran's point-counterpoint case studies make valuation a good read. Self-critical in his contemporary examples, he wisely cautions the reader that quality valuation requires both the right and the left side of one's brain—the number cruncher and the storyteller.

Paul Johnson, Nicusa Investment Advisors:
Damodaran's success in combining storytelling with traditional financial analysis and valuation is unprecedented. The book has the potential to be a cornerstone of both traditional valuation and business "pitching" as it shows how individuals from each world can benefit from co-opting tools from the other. The author takes us on his personal journey into the realization that numbers need a narrative in order to make them persuasive.