Business Acumen

Who and why?

As the business climate becomes ever more competitive, the ability to understand the commercial imperative is now a key management skill. This course is aimed at all those who need a grasp of the key drivers of profitable and sustainable growth in business. It is designed for anyone who needs to improve their finance knowledge, from those without the necessary tools to those who want a refresher.

Understanding the core elements of finance is crucial to commercial health and essential for successful management.Employees with higher levels of business acumen ask questions that consider the big-picture impact of potential decisions and it is the answers to those questions which enhance the organisation’s performance.

Course overview

Delegates are introduced to financial concepts through real business scenarios that they can relate to, showing them how their actions and decisions can impact on the organisation’s financial working.

The course enables delegates to confidently evaluate performance from the viewpoint of different stakeholder groups. They will be ready to identify and respond to the risks and constraints that could have a significant impact on their organisation’s future prospects.

Areas covered include basic business financial management concepts and tools of analysis such as valuation, risk-return relationships, financial statement analysis, cost of capital, capital structure, and working capital management.

Key learning points

By the end of the course delegates will be able to:

• Confidently evaluate performance from the viewpoint of different stakeholder groups
• Identify and respond to risks
• Properly compare year on year performance
• Fully assess the competition
• Apply basic financial valuation concepts
• Describe what determines the value of the company and how management can influence these values
• Analyse the firm’s performance to determine its particular strengths and weaknesses, and be able to use financial analysis to improve performance
• Analyse financial statements using standard financial ratios of liquidity, activity, debt, profitability, market value and leverage
• Understand the three main Financial Statements for the company