In today's competitive business world firms are under unprecedented pressure to deliver value to their shareholders and other key stakeholders. Senior executives in all parts of the organisation are finding that they need some degree of financial know how to cope with the responsibility placed on them as business managers and key decision-makers; monitoring and improving business performance, investing in capital projects, mergers and acquisitions: all require some degree of financial knowledge. The key financial skills are not as difficult to learn as many people believe and in the hands of an experienced senior executive they can provide a formidable competitive advantage.
After completing this course delegates will be able to:
Understand fundamental business finance concepts; understand, analyse and interpret financial statements: Profit Statement, Balance Sheet and Cashflow Statement
Understand the vital difference between profit and cashflow; identify the key components of working capital and how they can be managed to generate strong cashflow
Evaluate pricing decisions based on an understanding of the nature of business costs and their impact on gross margin and break-even sales; managing pricing, discounts and costs to generate strong business profits; understand how lean manufacturing methods improve profit
Use powerful analytical tools to measure and improve the performance of their own company and assess the effectiveness of their competitors
Apply and interpret techniques for assessing and comparing investment opportunities in capital projects, business acquisitions and other ventures; understand and apply common methods of business valuation
Understand the role of business finance in formulating and implementing competitive business strategy; the role of budgeting as part of the planning process and the various approaches to budgeting and performance measurement
1 Basic principles
Delivering value to key stakeholders
Accounting concepts, GAAP, IFRS and common terms
Understanding and using the balance sheet
Understanding and using the profit statement
Recognising the vital difference between profit and cashflow
Understanding and using the cashflow statement
What financial statements can and cannot tell us
2 Managing and improving cashflow
Sources of finance and their advantages and disadvantages
What is working capital and why is it so important?
Managing stocks, debtors and creditors
Understanding how working capital drives business growth
Understanding and avoiding the over-trading trap
Unlocking the funds tied up in fixed assets: asset backed loans and leasing
3 Managing and improving profit
Understanding how profits generate cashflow
The fundamental nature of costs: fixed and variable business costs
Understanding gross margin and break-even
How common pricing methods affect gross margin and profit
Effective strategies to improve gross margin
Using value chain analysis to reduce costs
Lean manufacturing methodsUnderstanding Just-in-time, 6 Sigma and Kaizen methods
Improving profitEffective and defective strategies
4 Measuring and managing business performance
Measures of financial performance and strength
Investor behaviour: the risk and reward relationship
Return on investment (ROI): the ultimate measure of business performance
How profit margin and net asset turnover drive return on net assets
Why some companies are more profitable that others
Understanding competitive advantage: cost and differentiation advantage
Why great companies failWhat happened to Kodak?
Using a 'Pyramid of Ratios' to improve business performance
Using Critical Success Factors to develop Key Performance Indicators
5 Budgeting and forecasting methods
Using budgets to support strategy
Objectives and methods for effective budgets
Using budgets to monitor and manage business performance
Alternative approaches to budgeting
Developing and implementing Balanced Scorecards
Beyond Budgeting
Forecasting methods and techniques
Identifying key business drivers
Using rolling forecasts and 'what-if' models to aid decision-making