Finance in Business
Case study workshops for Managers in Business - in English

Whether you are a manager, financial analyst or business owner looking for real practical skills in areas like IFRS, Budgeting, Valuations or Derivatives, this practical and case study based course will help unlock your financial skills so that you can focus on growing your business and improving performance.

Real-life decision-making will enable you to learn theory while at the same time developing a range of vital skills, like: negotiation, analysis, defending your view and challenging others’ views. Importantly, if you find you are missing information to make a decision, you will know what you need to decide!

Course Objectives - by Module

• You present to the Board new attractive ideas but without the numbers you will not be convincing anyone! How will such decisions impact the financial statements of the organization? 
• You feel uncomfortable during financial conversations or when you read the financial press. This course will not only give you comfort in understanding what is being said, but will also give you the power to challenge financial ideas.
• Having obtained the skills to understand the language of finance, you will be able to appreciate how your decisions and actions affect the financial health of your company. Furthermore you will be able to identify issues that arise because of others in the firm. 
• Financial statements always tell the true story!
• Case studies used in this module:
  • Harvard Business School – The Accounting Framework and Financial Statements
  • Harvard Business School – Financial Statements and Ratio Analysis

• The orientation of the course is more towards management accounting than just accounting — the audience will acquire skills in participating in key strategic decisions like costing and pricing as well as in any efforts to improve the performance of the organization.
• Advanced topics like Activity Based Budgeting, Relevant Costing, Variance Analysis and Pricing Methods will also be introduced through case studies.
• The entire course is case–study based. Real-life case studies from the Harvard Business School and Yonsei University will be used during the course. This module includes a case study from Yonsei University: Assessing a service provider by applying Activity Based Costing.

• How do you assess whether an investment project is worth the while? And how do you choose between projects that seem to give the same future cash flows? Having taken all factors involved, does the chosen project finally add value to the firm? And what exactly is Value?
• How do financial markets determine interest rates, foreign exchange rates and other financial variables affecting your company?
• Are derivatives useful or only for gamblers? How can you make use of derivatives to protect your company from risks and add value to it? Learn how to hedge the financial risk of your firm, whether it is price you are hedging against or interest rates or currency fluctuations.

• How do financial markets determine interest rates, foreign exchange rates and other financial variables affecting your company?
• Are derivatives useful or only for gamblers? How can you make use of derivatives to protect your company from risks and add value to it?
• Learn how to hedge the financial risk of your firm, whether it is price you are hedging against or interest rates or currency fluctuations.
• How are derivatives presented in the accounts of a company and how do they impact the financial statements? What is „Hedge Accounting” and what are its benefits?

• Constructing the balance sheet and income statement (case study)
• Key balance sheet and income statement positions – rules for recognition and measurement (exercises), including:
  • Property, plant and equipment
  • Intangible assets
  • Financial instruments
  • Provisions
• Constructing the cash flow statement and the statement of changes in equity – what they show and how to link them to information presented in the balance sheet and income statement (exercises)
• Financial ratios – construction, interpretation, advantages and disadvantages of principal ratios (exercises)
• Major case study – just by looking at the numbers and the ratios you will be able to:
  • Identify problems and their root causes
  • Link the various strategies together
  • Come up with solutions to improve the health of the company in the medium as well as the long term
• Major financial accounting regulations in the EU and abroad (International Financial Reporting Standards and US GAAP) – what they are and who applies them
• What you can find out by reading the auditor’s opinion
• Creative accounting – what to look out for when reading financial statements (exercises)

Programme

• Budgeting and Control: Purposes; systems and types of budgets; preparation - including cash forecasts and expected values; (exercises)
• Costing and Management Accounting: Fixed and Flexible Budgets; Activity Based Costing (ABC) versus traditional methods of costing - (exercises and case studies)
• Decision-making Techniques – Relevant/Economic Cost Analysis; Identifying and calculating Relevant Costs from given data and for specific situations in the decision-making process; Application of the concept of Opportunity Costs; Pricing Decisions; Dealing with Risk and Uncertainty (case studies)
• Variance Analysis – From Standard Costing to Variances; Sales and Quantity Variances; Planning and Operating Variances; Performance Analysis (case studies)
• Cost-Volume Analysis: Calculation and interpretation of the Break-Even Point and the Margin of safety; Relevance to the operational as well as financial gearing of the entity; The importance of Contribution in decision-making (case studies)

Programme

• Time Value of Money: Present Value, Future Value, Discounting Techniques (practical exercises).
• Methods of evaluating investment decisions – net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), payback period, real options (case study).
• Cost of capital – Weighted Average Cost of Capital, adjusting for risk, decisions on project financing (case study).
• Sensitivity analysis in situations of uncertainty (practical exercises).
• Valuations in business: Review of various approaches to pricing and valuation of equity and debt financial instruments
• Valuation of companies.

Programme

• Interest rates – what they are, how they are determined, why they change. (practical exercises).
• Foreign exchange rates – analysis of current trends in major currency pairs (case study).
• Financial markets structure – segments, markets and players.
• Derivative instruments as tools for financial risk hedging (exercises):
  • Forward and futures contracts
  • Options
  • Swaps
• Valuation and presentation of derivatives in the Financial Statements of a company
• Introduction to Hedge Accounting
• Correct and incorrect uses of multiple derivative strategies (case study).
• Lessons learnt from the „options crisis” of 2008 in Poland from the perspective of corporations and financial institutions.

Find out more about how we deliver interactive online classrooms.

Price: 650 Euro (net) per Module. Discounted package prices are available - see more here.