4 Part Strategic Finance for Decision Makers:

Understanding Finance to Make Critical Strategic & Economic Decisions with

Australia's Leading Expert in Finance Education

Lindsay Dewberry

Clientele includes Mercedes Benz, National Australia Bank, Disney Australia
20 Years of Experience in Programme Facilitation

With over 30 years of extensive business, finance and accounting experience under his belt, Lindsay has mastered the ability to take complex matter and impart it with ease, enthusiasm and positivity. His cross-industry experience includes the financial services, hospitality, federal and state governments, not-for-profit and manufacturing sectors, with a significant client base across both large and small organisations.  

Additionally, Lindsay is a creator and presenter of financial management webinars for the Australian Institute of Company Directors directed towards directors of NFP’s. His major focus over the last 5 years has been the development and facilitation of accounting and financial services related training.

Testimonials

“Lindsay was a fantastic facilitator. He was extremely knowledgeable and engaging plus he knew his subject matter extensively. Great course!”
Senior Manager, Victorian Department of Health & Human Services

“…It was a pleasant surprise and moved my initial negative expectations of a potential mandatory and boring course to one of relevance and value to my business success…”
Managing Director, Money Depot

Why You Should Attend

If you’re an experienced manager who wants to know how to use financial concepts and techniques to make better management decisions, then this course is for you. Regardless of the functional area you work in, this seminar will help you be more confident about your ability to create value for your organisation. 

You will be able understand the most important concepts in financial management and you will learn how senior executives make use of them to make critical strategic and economic decisions. You will get practical experience using your new skills by applying them to real world examples. This seminar will assist you to become recognised as a knowledgeable and skillful strategic thinker in your organisation and you will be able to engage with other senior executives in a more confident and meaningful way.

Day 1 (9th November 2020)

SESSION 1 - The Cost of Capital (WACC)

Although a relatively simple concept, the cost of capital is the most powerful idea in modern financial management. Over the past 20 years it has become a crucial concept in financial decision making. Understanding the cost of capital enables you to deal with complex financial decisions with confidence. 

Topics in this session:

• Estimating cost of debt
• Credit ratings
• Estimating cost of equity
• Beta value
• Estimating WACC
• Capital Asset Pricing Model

Practical Exercise: Estimating cost of capital at Walmart

SESSION 2 - Discounted Cash Flow

Strategic management decisions are those that have tremendous effect over a period of time. The ability to analyse the effect time has on the value of the decision is the essence of discounted cash flow. It is a major concept in project decisions, investment decisions and acquisition decisions

• Net Present Value (NPV)
• Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
• Using Net Present Value to evaluate a project
• Excel tips and shortcuts
• Sensitivity testing
• Considering risk in project evaluation

Practical Exercise: Analysing and evaluating a strategic project proposal

Day 2 (10th November 2020)

SESSION 3 - Creating Economic Value

The method of measuring organisational success is changing from profit-based methods to value-based methods. These days, the economic objective of businesses is to create value rather than create profits. To be a successful manager, you need to understand the difference between value and profit and how you can create economic value in your role. 

• Accounting value, market value and economic value
• Why is value different than profit?
• How you can create economic value
• Measuring value created
• Economic Value Added (EVA)

Practical exercise: Estimating value created at WalMart

SESSION 4 - Free Cash Flow

Techniques based on free cash flow have become the predominant way of determining the value of any business. When considering an acquisition or takeover, free cash flow is used to establish the right price to pay to acquire the target business. Free cash flow also allows managers to understand whether a business is growing in a way that is balanced and sustainable. As such, understanding free cash flow is essential for senior managers. 

• Profit and cash flow
• How you can be profitable and broke
• Estimating free cash flow
• Using free cash flow to value a business

Practical exercise: What would you pay to acquire WalMart?

Day 3 (12th November 2020)

SESSION 5 - Managing Working Capital

Working capital is often viewed as a negative to the business and as such, the aim is to minimise it. However, the working capital cycle is how the business generates cash and is the first step towards profitability. We will look at why and how working capital needs to be optimised rather than minimised, and managing the balance between financial efficiency and stakeholder expectations. 

• Working capital measures and metrics
• Estimating receivables turnover time, payables turnover time and inventory turnover time
• Working capital cycle time
• How to optimise working capital
• How working capital affects profitability

Practical exercise: Learning from working capital management at WalMart

SESSION 6 - Managing Debt

Managing debt is one of the principle preoccupations of executive management. It is essentially about balancing the benefits of financial efficiency against the risks of financial failure. The recent global financial crisis reinforces how important it is that debt is managed appropriately. 

• Types of debt available to businesses
• Gearing and leverage measures
• Coverage ratios
• How credit ratings are determined and how they affect the cost of borrowing
• What is the right level of debt for a business?

Practical exercise: Analysis and assessment of debt at WalMart

Day 4 (13th November 2020)

SESSION 7 - Managing the Financial Future

In financial management, as with everything else in life, there is no way of predicting the future with certainty. The idea that it may be possible to forecast whether a business will experience financial distress in the future is an attractive proposition. In this session we will be learning about and using one of the most widely known bankruptcy prediction tool which claims to have 95% accuracy. 

• Sustainable growth rate
• Viewing the financial future of a business
• How predictive models work
• The drivers of financial failure
• Using a predictive model

Practical exercise: The financial strength of Walmart

SESSION 8: Managing the Connection between Finance and Strategy

Finance and strategy are connected in many ways. Finance is a tool that enables strategic objectives to be achieved. It also provides a method of assessing the economic gain or loss that is a result of strategic decisions. In this session, we will examine the four main generic strategies and learn about the financial characteristics necessary to make them succeed. 

• Profit margin strategies
• Asset efficiency strategies
• Value creating strategies
• Growth strategies

Practical exercise: Examining how strategic decisions at WalMart, Coca Cola, Louis Vuitton, Pfizer and Tesco have created distinctive financial characteristics in those organisations.

Who Should Attend

This seminar is specifically designed for managers who may or may not have an accounting or finance background who see their future management role as requiring greater understanding of financial concepts to assist them in making sound management decisions. It will assist managers from all functional backgrounds including:

• Managing Directors / CEO
• Business Owners / Executive Directors
• General Managers
• Finance Managers
• Accountants
• Operational Managers
• Marketing Managers
• HR Managers
• IT Managers
• Strategists
• Sales Managers
• Engineers
• Technical Managers / Project Managers

*******For more details, kindly download the brochure*******