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Strategic Finance for Non-Finance Executives  

View Every Opportunity Understanding Risks and Consequences

2-4 June 2024 in Doha

We've designed this course for mid to senior level executives coming from non-financial backgrounds. Unlike similarly-named courses typically taught by accountant-instructors, this course is unique for its focus on value creation. We highlight the financial perspective and cast accounting in the context of value creation to deliver a broader understanding.
Attendees come from all areas of companies, and often include:
CEOs, General Managers, Heads of Business Units and their staff
Corporate Planning, Development and Strategy and professionals
Business owners and functional managers
Entrepreneurs and Board Members
Regulators and Policy Makers
Appreciate the difference between financial value creation and accounting profitability.
Build and refine the foundation of your financial intuition.
Comprehend what drives shareholder value and why.
Appreciate how an effective business strategy impacts value.
Recognize how economic outcomes of business decisions are reflected in financial statements.
Understand the shortcomings of accounting-driven decision-making.
Acquire the tools to effectively evaluate capital investments.
Become better equipped to critically evaluate investment proposals.
Learn the elements of an optimal financing decision. 
Incorporate shareholder perspective in evaluating business decisions.
To navigate today's competitive environment, every business executive and owner must possess a fundamental knowledge of how financial resources are accumulated, utilized and monitored to create shareholder value. Without an appreciation of financial value creation, primary reliance on an accounting perspective isn't enough. This puts companies defaulting this critical perspective solely to financial executives at a clear competitive disadvantage. 

Designed as an intermediate-level course for senior executives coming from non-financial backgrounds, our focus is the economic and strategic consequences of business decisions, and how business strategies are better formulated in the context of financial economics. We highlight financial value creation as the core focus, putting accounting in its proper place as the language of business, but not necessarily a decision-making tool. We look at the broader picture and learn the integral role of finance in all facets of corporate management.

Exploring and tying together performance measurement, strategy formulation, capital budgeting, the risk and return relationship, financing choices and internal governance, we will also discuss the criteria that investors employ to evaluate a company and determine its value. The program will equip the participants with a collection of tools and insights to enable them to effectively build and refine their financial intuition.

1. Financial Value Creation versus Accounting

Establishing value objective.
Why accounting doesn't measure value and the drivers of value and how accounting profitability may not be what you think. 
Financial principles that measure value.
Centrality of opportunity cost of capital as the minimum required rate of return.
Quantifying value principles into Present Value.
Assessing costs and benefits of decisions and investments with Net Present Value.
When return-based measures like IRR, may not always measure value.
Harvard Case Study

2. Business Strategy in the Context of Value Creation

Strategy means to the end, not the end goal.
Relating strategy and minimum required rate of return.
How competitive advantage drives value.

3. Understanding Accounting Statements

Understanding impact of managerial decisions and business activities on accounting statements.
Value creation in the context of accounting information.How information in an integrated systems flows across balance sheets, income statements, and statements of cash flow.
Why accounting principles are necessary, and when they can distort information
Harvard Case Study

4. Analysis of Financial Statements

Using ratios to assess liquidity, profitability, and leverage.
Usage limits of financial ratios in managerial decision-making.
Disaggregating financial ratios to bring out underlying drivers.
Understanding risk as a critical benchmark. 
Adjusting accounting information to eliminate distortions and improve comparability.
Harvard Case Study

5. Transitioning from Accounting to Value Creation

Quantifying the inadequacies of accounting. 
Tradeoffs between operating and asset efficiencies.
Integrating cost of capital into performance measurement.
"Economic Value Added" as a decision-making tool.
Understanding and correcting managerial misalignment.
Exercises

6. How Companies, Projects and Acquisitions are Valued

Cash flow-based approaches to analysis of investments.
Properly prioritizing investment projects.
Confronting the biases in the investment process.
How financial markets value companies.
How debt affects valuation.
Explaining why valuations are volatile.
Strategic rationale for acquisitions.
Valuation of acquisition synergies.
Issues for privately held companies.
Valuation Simulation
Kindly click on Download to receive the complete program details in pdf format.