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 methods
* Understanding Just-in-time, 6 Sigma and Kaizen methods
* Improving profit
* Effective 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 fail
* What 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