UNDERSTANDING FINANCE TO INFLUENCE STRATEGIC DECISIONS

Introduction:

A solid knowledge of basic financial principles enables practitioners at any level to make effective strategic decisions and obtain better results. This training is tailored to create awareness on how finance and accounting methods perform a critical role in supporting the process of strategic planning and decision-making process. This helps in providing insight into how financial indicators interact with other non-financial indicators to determine whether the priorities and objectives of the organizations are being achieved. The training will also discuss the role of finance and accounting principles in activities such as costing, budgeting and management of performance. Ultimately, this highly immersive training is structured to explore a variety of strategies available to practitioners help their strategic decisions and evaluate the various outcomes achieved.

Course Objectives:

At the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Implement strategic decisions, with a strong financial understanding
• Integrate strategic planning with budgeting, costing and measuring performance
• Employ the implementation of ad-hoc resource allocation for achieving objectives and goals
• Describe the financial statements structure (Income statement, Statement of Financial Position and Cash flow statement)
• Utilize the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) method for capital budgeting and capital project expenditure calculation, using Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

Course Outline:

Day 1: The Fundamentals of Business: The Relationship between the Systems of Management and Strategic Planning

• Definition of Strategy
• The Framework for Strategic Planning
• The Key Features of Strategic Planning
• Exploring the links between Mission, Vision, Goals and Objectives
• Corporate Objectives, Decisions and Initiatives
• Budgeting, Planning, and Evaluating efficiency to help strategic decision-making

Day 2: Fundamentals of Financial Statements and its Relationship with Budget

• The Key Principles of Financial Statements
• Statement of Financial Position
• Income Statement
• Cash Flow Statement
• The important function of planning and budgeting
• Budgets for Future Financial Statements

Day 3: Costing and Budgeting to aid Strategic Decisions

• Costs and Resources to aid Strategic Decisions
• The various forms of expenditures that needs to be budgeted for
• Constant and Variable Expenses
• Costs that are Direct and Indirect
• Breakeven Analysis
• Margin of Contribution
• Indirect and Direct Cost
• Developing and Optimizing cost processes for the purpose of decision making

Day 4: Capital Budgeting

• Discounted Cash Flow, Present Values and Future Values
• Principles in Capital Budgeting
• Tools for analyzing ventures requiring capital expenditure
• Net Present Value (NPV) AND Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
• Approach used to evaluate and analyze projects/investments in the organization

Day 5: Evaluating Financial and Non-Financial Performance to aid Strategic Decisions

• Analyzing KPIs in Financial and Non-Financial terms
• Integrating various metrics and goals in a structured dashboard
• Advanced analysis to aid strategic decision making
• Relating Risk Management with Strategic Decision making
• Integrating the relationship between financial and non-financial communication

Who Should Attend?

Understanding how Finance affect strategic decision-making is important for every position in the company and at evert level of management. This training is designed:

• Financial Analysts
• Financial Controllers
• Accountants
• Project Managers
• Human Resource Practitioners and any others active in the planning process.

Delivery Method: Lectures, discussions, syndicate work, case studies, role – play and group exercises. Audio – Visual aids will be used to reinforce these training and learning methods.

Venue: London

Fee: $5,000.00

Duration: 1 Week

Course Date: May 8^th – 12^th  2023