Helping "non-financial" business professionals add strategic value through basic financial and accounting training.
Executives from every department need the tools to "speak the language of business" and be involved in the organizations' outcomes and goals.
"Companies demand that human resources executives, as well as other traditionally 'non-financial' professionals, demonstrate a strong grasp of corporate strategy and how they can help achieve it," says Dan Hilbert, CEO Orca Eyes, Inc., and former Global Talent and Planning Lead at Valero Energy Corp.
Business savvy
"In today's knowledge-driven, global economy, executives' roles in almost every area of the company require them to be more business savvy, using broader skills to manage their departments as a strategic function-with measurable deliverables and returns on investment," he says. "All other functions are subject to vigorous outsourcing or automation. Those leaders who understand and embrace the strategy through basic finance and technology skills, will write the rules of business in the first part of the 21st century."
So how do you go about doing this? Hilbert offers these suggestions:
- Attend professional training courses to learn basic financial principles.
- Study the shareholder annual report (10K), quarterly reports (10Q) and listen to executive team analyst briefings. In public companies, 80 percent of core strategic values are found there.
-
Read articles or speeches by the CEO, CFO and COO.
-
Set up Google/Yahoo agents of all key competitors and try gently sprinkling a few seeds of new advances by competitors over the CEO's consciousness and wait - just wait.
- Be sure to have a few solutions handy.
Always study the basic financials of competitors to try and learn their unique business value chain model.
Understanding the numbers
SMU Executive Education's course, Essentials of Finance and Accounting for Non-Financial Managers, can help.
Dates:
- May 21 - 23, 2007 On-Line Application
- November 7 - 9, 2007 On-Line Application
Who Should Attend
- Managers at all levels who work in non-financial areas
- Technical managers with profit-loss and/or budget responsibilities
- Anyone needing an introductory look at financial basics and financial statements
Key Benefits
- Gain solid understanding of finance and accounting basics
- Follow step-by-step approach to primary financial statements
- Apply accounting and financial data to evaluate your firm's performance against the competition and how to use data to make better business decisions
- Learn the basic principles of finance to better assess and select projects and investments
Gain an understanding of cost behavior: fixed costs, variable costs, break-even analysis, contribution margin, etc.
Location: James M. Collins Executive Education Center (Dallas, TX)
Program Fees: $2,695 for individual; team discount for 3 or more if applications are submitted together.
|
