The Oxford Advanced Finance Programme
Modern Techniques in Decision Making Process and their Applications
Course Overview
Course Objectives
- Understand their role as managers and leaders.
- Establish clear objectives and standards of performance for the team.
- Manage their workload using effective prioritization, delegation, and information management techniques.
- Maximize their influencing skills.
- Develop and leverage the capabilities of team members.
- Expose to various leadership and management practice approaches, allowing them to select those most suitable for their situation and personal style.
- Experimenting with critical techniques before applying them in the workplace will help build confidence in moving beyond traditional assumptions about the 'right' way to manage.
- Broaden their financial knowledge to enable them to develop and manage the financial aspects of their role more effectively and improve performance.
- 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.
- Understand the financial tools and techniques that support an organization's planning and control concerning their departments, business units, and businesses.
Course Audience
- Managers, supervisors, and team leaders.
- Project management professionals.
- Human resources and other non-financial areas.
- Accountants.
- Financial analysts.
- Auditors.
- Financial personnel and senior finance professionals.
- Professionals who want to understand the financial aspects of their roles better.
Course Methodology
Course Outline
Day 1 :Strategic Management, Financial Planning & Budgeting
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Linking strategic management and decision-making with financial planning
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Vision, mission, and corporate objectives
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Key characteristics of strategic decision-making
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Strategy implementation and execution
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Value creation and shareholder wealth maximisation
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Corporate objectives, accountability, and governance
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Role of management accounting in strategic planning and budgeting
Day 2 :Financial Statements & Strategic Financial Decisions
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Understanding balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement
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Sources of internal and external financing
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Cost of equity, cost of debt, and Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC)
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Capital structure optimisation to minimise WACC
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Preparing long-term financial plans and determining financing needs
Day 3 :Costing, Measurement & Performance Systems
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Cost behaviour: fixed vs. variable costs
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Cost-volume-profit (CVP) relationships and break-even analysis
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Direct and indirect costs
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Activity-Based Costing (ABC) and Activity-Based Management (ABM)
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Linking strategic objectives to KPIs through the balanced scorecard
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Performance measurement challenges and accounting limitations
Day 4 :Capital Investment & Risk Management
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Time value of money: present and future values, DCF techniques
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Principles of capital budgeting and evaluation methods (ARR, payback, NPV, IRR, MIRR, EAC)
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Capital rationing and the profitability index (PI)
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Identifying and managing business and financial risks
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Tools for risk management: insurance, hedging, interest rate, and FX risk management
Day 5 :Financial Analysis, Forecasting & Business Valuation
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Linking financial projections with operating budgets
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Standard costing, variance analysis, and cash flow forecasting
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Sensitivity, scenario, and simulation analyses
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Business valuation methods and applications
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Value creation in mergers, acquisitions, and restructuring
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Management Buyouts (MBOs) and Buy-ins (MBIs)