books on different industry sectors

Water Cooler
#1

Hello all!

Whether we are in transaction advisory or equity research, I gather that we ought to have thorough knowledge of different industry sectors - retail, food & beverage, energy, health care, real estate, media, education and the list goes on.

I have had most of my exposure in real estate and heath care in my years of experience in transaction advisory. I feel I know nothing about few other sectors e.g retail is something I have zero knowledge about.

Thus, rather than reading bits and pieces online, I actually want to develop thorough understanding of a few of these sectors. Are there any good books or series of books that give broad knowledge of a few of the mentioned sectors from operations and finance perspective? I am most interested to know about retail, media, health care, food & beverage.

No textbooks please. Those are boring!

Thanks!

#2

10-Ks, Earnings Call Transcripts! and initiation reports.

#3

+1: I prefer dialing in though.

#4

See if you can get your hands on some IBISWorld Industry Reports. They do an excellent job of breaking down who the players are, where the industry has been, where it’s at, where it’s going, and what drives it.

#5

Lord of the Rings, A Song of Fire and Ice, and the First Law Trilogy are required reading if you’re covering the fantasy industry.