"Introduction to Financial Statements Knowing the numbers is sometimes even a matter of corporate survival. Consider the story of Columbia Sportswear Company, headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Gert Boyle's family fled Nazi Germany when she was 13 years old and then purchased a small hat company in Oregon, Columbia Hat Company. In 1971, Gert's husband, who was then running the company, died suddenly. Gert took over the small, struggling company with help from her son Tim, who was then a senior at the University of Oregon. Somehow, they kept the company afloat. Today, Columbia has more than 4,000 employees and annual sales in excess of $1 billion. Its brands include Columbia, Mountain Hardwear, Sorel, and Montrail. Employers such as Columbia Sportswear generally assume that managers in all areas of the company are "financially literate." To help prepare you for that, in this text you will learn how to read and prepare financial statements, and how to use key tools to evaluate financial results using basic data analytics."--