Course Description

The course is designed to help participants understand how decisions impact financial performance, identify initiatives to improve company performance, and build better business cases with the overall goal of improving financial acumen and decision-making. The course utilizes hands-on applications, group discussion, and exercises.

The course is comprised of (1) 60-minute pre-course introductory session (March 9 | 1:30-2:30pm ET) and (3) 90-minute instructor-led LIVE group webinars (March 16, 23, 30 | 1:30-3pm ET) with each group webinar requiring (1) 90-minute session of online pre-work to be completed before each webinar (total of 9 hours). Participants will be able to access the online "pre-work" material starting March 2.

Who Should Attend

Early or middle stage career professionals who are or will be responsible for executing organizational strategy tied to an integrated view of the organization (including professionals from distribution and logistics, production, and operations).

How You Will Benefit

• Enhance your financial acumen
• Gain a framework for better managing financial performance
• Understand how faster decision-making can help more quickly capture business and financial benefits
• Obtain practical experience relating to putting together a business case for a real project

What Is Covered

• The measures (return, cash flow, etc.) and key drivers (revenue, profitability, asset utilization) of financial performance
• The ‘Power of One’ – the impact of improving any financial metric by 1% (e.g. 1% increase in revenue, 1% decrease in cost of goods sold & 1-day reduction in inventory)
• How improvement in operational key performance indicators (KPIs) improves cash flow and overall financial performance, and how to better manage activities that impact operational KPIs.
• Building a business case (strategic fit, critical success factors, change management, intangible benefits, financial criteria e.g., cash flow, payback, NPV and breakeven analysis) and using a business case as a project plan

Webinar 1– Managing Financial Performance

Objectives

• Develop deeper understanding of the importance and drivers of financial performance
• How it is influenced by individual decisions and collectively as a team

Pre-work

• Review Financial Acumen eLearning
• Identify the areas of financial performance they are responsible for managing
• Examples of decisions that impact a company’s overall performance
• Analysis of company (or company of choice) financial performance using FinListics ClientIQ.
• Pre-work submitted prior to webinar 1 for review by facilitator.

Topics

• Overall measures of performance (return, cash flow, etc.)
• Key drivers of financial performance
  • Revenue
  • Profitability
  • Asset utilization
• Activity: Analyze financial performance – trend, peer, and industry
• Activity:
  • Power of One - what are cash flow benefits from improvements in:
    • Financial metrics by 1% (e.g. 1% increase in revenue, 1% decrease in cost of goods sold)
    • Capital Utilization (e.g. 1-day reduction in inventory)
  • Gap Analyses
    • Improvement in financial metric to best performing year or best performing peer
• Key take-aways and how participants will apply what they have learned

Webinar 2 – Improving Financial Performance

Objectives

• Develop deeper understanding of how improvement in operational key performance indicators (KPIs) improve cash flow and overall financial performance
• Explain how participants can better manage activities impacting operational KPIs

Pre-work

• Identify operational KPIs they help manage
• Identify initiatives to improve operational KPIs
• Pre-work submitted prior to webinar 2 for review by facilitator.

Topics

• Framework for better managing financial performance
  • Financial metrics -> business processes -> activities and tasks -> operational KPIs
• Activity: Identify KPIs participant’s company is most focused on improving (e.g., materials, labor, closure rate, employee turnover, etc. What lines of business would be involved? What are the initiatives? What are the business benefits?)
• Activity: Power of One and Gap Analyses – what are cash flow benefits from:
  • Improve targeted operational KPIs by 1%
  • Improve performance to targeted performance
  • Cost of delay in achieving improvement in performance
• How faster decision-making can help the company more quickly capture business and financial benefits.
• Key take-aways and how participants will apply what they have learned

Webinar 3 – Building the Better Business Case

Objectives

• Develop initiative that helps improve participant’s company financial performance
• Develop deeper understanding of building a business case
• Using the business case as project plan instead of check-the-box to get approval

Pre-work

• Review Business Case Acumen eLearning
• Build on initiative identified in Webinar 2
• Develop initial business case
• Conduct cash flow analysis using FinListics ClientIQ
• Pre-work submitted prior to webinar 3 for review by facilitator.  

Topics

• Business case overview
  • Qualitative – e.g., strategic fit, critical success factors, change management, intangible benefits etc.
  • Quantitative – financial criteria e.g., cash flow, payback, NPV, etc. and breakeven analysis
  • Monitoring and managing success 
• Activity: Present initial business case and receive feedback from peers and facilitator
• Summary of webinar series
  • Key take-aways
  • How participants will apply what they have learned
  • What / how will they share with others