The Oxford Advanced Finance Leaders Programme

Course details

This seminar brings together some of the most important areas of management, leadership, and financial management: Mastering People Management & Team Leadership Skills, and Financial Analysis, Planning and Control. It will help business professionals:

• Stand back from the detail of their everyday specialism and appreciate the bigger picture required of management roles
• Apply effective people management skills confidently
• Use the financial techniques of planning and control
• Improve performance from the use of the tools of financial analysis
• Preparation financial projection models to determine the financing needs of the business

This seminar is a combination of two modules:

MODULE I - Mastering People Management & Team Leadership Skills

MODULE II - Financial Analysis, Planning & Control

Each module is structured and can be taken as a stand-alone course; however, delegates will maximise their benefits by taking Module 1 and 2 back-to-back as a two-week seminar.

Objectives

By the end of this seminar delegates will be able to:

• Understanding your role as manager and leader
• Establishing clear objectives and standards of performance for your team
• Managing your workload using effective prioritisation, delegation and information management techniques
• Maximising your influencing skills
• Developing and leveraging the capabilities of team members

Training Methodology

The management and leadership elements of the seminar use a range of approaches to learning, including experiential group activities, individual exercises, mini case studies, role plays and syndicate discussions.

The financial elements of the seminar include numerous practical examples and real life illustrations. The training methodology combines presentations, discussions, team exercises and case studies. The emphasis is on gaining the theoretical knowledge and practical application of all the topics covered.

Organisational Impact

• Managers who have shared and practised different ways of performing the key leadership functions offer increased self-awareness, flexibility and confidence.
• Able to stand back from the everyday detail and focus on longer-term organisational needs secure in the knowledge that their team are competent and motivated to deal with operational tasks.
• An increase in the ability of their managers to understand and analyse the key financial statements
• Anticipate the financial factors that form the basis of strategic decision-making, which should ultimately result in better planning, and improved company performance.
• All the topics in this seminar are considered in the context of maximisation of shareholder wealth, which is the primary objective of all commercial organisations.

Personal Impact

• Delegates will be exposed to a range of different approaches to leadership and management practice, allowing them to select those most suitable for their situation and personal style.
• Delegates will have the chance to experiment with key techniques before applying them in the workplace will help build the confidence to move beyond traditional assumptions about the 'right' way to manage.
• Delegates will have the opportunity to broaden their financial knowledge to enable them to develop and manage the financial aspects of their role more effectively and improve performance
• Delegates will acquire the ability, when involved in decisions about investment, operations, or financing, to choose the most appropriate tools from the wide variety of financial techniques available to provide a quantitative analysis.
• Delegates should leave the seminar with a better understanding of the financial tools and techniques that support an organisation's planning and control, with regard to their own departments or business units, as well as their companies.

SEMINAR OUTLINE 

Module I

Mastering People Management & Team Leadership

Understanding Your Role

• Leader or manager?
• Self-perception
• Beyond the job description: finding out what your organisation requires of you
• Balancing conflicting stakeholder demands
• Understanding the nature of change
• A model for implementing change

Personal Effectiveness, Time Management and Delegation

• Understanding yourself and your organisational environment
• Outcome orientation
• Setting personal and team objectives
• Managing performance
• Finding and using time effectively
• A model for effective delegation

Communication, Influence & Conflict Management

• Channels of communication
• Effective listening skills
• Emotions and rapport
• Persuasion and negotiation: the keys to personal influence
• Managing conflict assertively

Team Building, People Management and Motivation

• How high-performing teams work?
• Identifying team roles
• Teams in practice: teambuilding exercise
• Motivation and reward
• Building and sharing a vision
• Different approaches to leadership

Enhancing Team Performance through Coaching and Development

• How people learn?
• Coaching for personal and team growth
• Feedback skills
• Development planning
• Next steps

Module II

Financial Analysis, Planning and Control

The Challenge of Financial Economic Decision-Making

• The practice of financial economic analysis
• Corporate value and shareholder value
• A dynamic perspective of business Benchmarking your own strategic position/competitor analysis
• The agency problem and corporate governance
• What information and data to use?
• The nature of financial statements
• The context of financial analysis and decision-making

Assessment of Business Performance

• Ratio analysis and business performance
• Management's point of view
• Owners' point of view
• Lenders' point of view
• Ratios as a system - pyramids of ratios
• Integration of financial performance analysis - the Dupont system
• Economic value added (EVA)
• Predicting financial distress

Projection of Financial Requirements

• Interrelationship of financial projections
• Operating budgets
• Standard costing and variance analysis
• Cash forecasts and cash budgets
• Sensitivity analysis
• Dynamics and growth of the business system
• Operating leverage
• Financial growth plans
• Financial modelling

Analysis of Investment Decisions

• Applying time-adjusted measures
• Net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR)
• Strategic perspective
• EVA and NPV
• Refinements of investment analysis
• Equivalent annual cost (EAC)
• Modified internal rate of return (MIRR)
• Sensitivity analysis, scenario analysis, simulation, and NPV break-even
• Dealing with risk and changing circumstances

Valuation and Business Performance

• Managing for shareholder value
• Shareholder value creation in perspective
• Evolution of value-based methodologies
• Creating value in restructuring and combinations
• Financial strategy in acquisitions
• Business valuation
• Business restructuring and reorganisations
• Management buy outs (MBOs) and management buy ins (MBIs)