Advanced Strategic Financial Management Practices

Introduction:

Effective financial management goes beyond merely increasing operating profit; it focuses on enhancing the enterprise's value and maximizing shareholder wealth. Every organization aspires to improve its operating profit by broadening the top line and enhancing the bottom line. However, strategic finance management is only achievable with advanced financial skills that enable the assessment and implementation of the financial strategies necessary for an organization to achieve and expand its long-term business vision.

This Advanced Strategic Financial Management Practices course in strategic finance management aims to develop and integrate essential skills and tools in the formulation, implementation, and management of financial strategy and corporate finance, emphasizing the creation of value from financial resources. In today’s global marketplace, where the competition for investors and customers is intense, these skills are crucial. Strategic finance solutions become even more critical for business success, as they help build a clear vision of financial strategy and the overall role of finance within the company.

The course uniquely combines contemporary theoretical foundations with practical application, enabling participants to construct and implement powerful financial models and strategies. Throughout the course, participants will explore advanced strategic finance management approaches, analyze case studies, and understand the rationale behind critical financial decisions. By the end of the course, participants will be equipped to develop and apply financial strategies that are both balanced and focused on long-term business sustainability.

Objectives:

At the end of this Advanced Strategic Financial Management Practices course, participants will be able to:

• Recognize their role in strategic analysis and strategy formulation.
• Develop methods for measuring financial performance and stability.
• Create funding and capital structure strategies.
• Construct cash flow, risk, and investment decision-making models.
• Provide informed recommendations on investment decisions.
• Offer insights on strategies for sustainable long-term business growth.

Training Methodology:

• Exercises for financial modeling
• Role play
• Collaborative learning
• Applied tasks
• Instructor demonstration
• Questions and answers

Course Outline:

Unit 1: Business and Financial Strategy – The Missing Bridge

• The rationale and objectives of the enterprise.
• Company aims and approaches to competition.
• Competitive success and the role of financial strategy.
• Analytical tools and tasks in strategy development.
• Developing market-winning business models.
• Implementing an effective performance management process.
• Financial planning: Budgeting and more.

Unit 2: Performance and Risk Management through Financial Performance

• Analyzing, understanding, and interpreting financial statements.
• Agency theory and its implications for business goals.
• Investor and stock market behavior: Factors affecting share price.
• Key aspects of assessing shareholder value creation.
• Understanding cost and profit behavior.
• Evaluating return on investment and its enhancement.
• Cost reduction as a core business strategy.
• Creating and managing shareholder value.

Unit 3: Funding Strategy and Liquidity Management

• Sources of business finance: Equity and debt capital.
• Financial gearing – Risks and impacts.
• Calculating the cost of capital and its implications.
• Preferred capital structure – Theory vs. reality.
• Cash flow and liquidity ratio analysis – Key management tools.
• Developing financial models in Excel.
• Applying financial models for cash flow projection.
• Forecasting corporate bankruptcy and its management.

Unit 4: Capital Investment Strategy and Risk Management

• Managing capital investments.
• Using Excel for discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis.
• Capital investment tools for appraisal and decision-making.
• Applying financial models for capital investment appraisal.
• Unified risk management strategies.
• Techniques for identifying and assessing business risk.
• Managing financial risk through strategic finance.
• Decision-making under uncertainty.

Unit 5: Board Responsibilities – Business Policy and Strategy

• Purpose and foundations of corporate governance.
• Long-term development plans for the company.
• Why even the most successful companies can fail.
• Business model disruption.
• Driving innovation.
• Mergers and acquisitions.
• Reorganization and corporate restructuring.

Unit 6: Financial Management in the Public Sector

• Analyzing and understanding cost patterns.
• Cost-volume-profit interaction.
• The importance of financial statement analysis.
• Tools for financial analysis.
• Analyzing public sector financial reports and interpreting ratios.
• Controlling and reducing fund deficits.

Unit 7: Risk Management Strategies

• Hedging foreign currency risk.
• The forward market.
• The options market.
• Costless collar (zero-cost collar).
• Strategic hedging of commodity price risk.
• Options and futures.

Unit 8: Factors Affecting Capital Investment Decisions

• Nature and process of decision-making.
• Methods of investment appraisal.
• Principles of discounted cash flow analysis.
• Understanding net present value (NPV).
• Criteria for outsourcing services decision-making.
• Purpose and criteria for PPI and PFI projects.