COMMERCIAL CREDIT AND COLLECTION GUIDE.

By Bruce D. Classon '54.Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,1968. 172 pp. $17.95.

Mr. Classon has directed his book to "the broad range of credit grantors who desire a practical knowledge of the field rather than a theoretical one." Readers excluded from this narrow, but important, group are advised to respect the author's selected audience. The book is not intended to have a broad appeal.

Drawing upon his training and experience as Senior Vice-President of the James Talcott Factors Division of James Talcott, Inc., the author first introduces the broad economic factors influencing the credit grantor's decisions. He then reviews the "tools of the trade," preceding sequentially through the analysis and interpretation of financial statements, sources and uses of other "reliable credit information," and other key decision factors affecting credit decisions. He completes the cycle with a discussion of "collection techniques that work." Following this presentation, he reviews views various types of credit and the types of situations for which they are suitable. A short discussion of "legal advice and the credit man" and a case study dealing with the rehabilitation of a weak debtor conclude the work.

The author is successful in achieving a "practical" rather than "theoretical" presettation. Therein lies both the strengths and weaknesses of the book. For the aspiring or inexperienced credit man, the book provide a useful introduction to his work and could serve as a reference. However, it is doubtful that the experienced credit analyst would gain as much from the book since most of the ideas presented by the author should already be familiar to one who has regularly wrestled with the credit-granting function '

Mr. Stone is Assistant Professor of BusinessAdministration at Amos Tuck School, Dartmouth College.