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Business Acumen Advanced Course Outline
Business Acumen Advanced Fact Sheet

Business Acumen - Advanced

 Objective

For managers and professionals with 5+ years of experience who need to (1) increase finance, accounting and business decision-making knowledge beyond the basics, (2) integrate key financial reports and ratios into a scorecard, and (3) prepare capital appropriation requests to fund new initiatives, programs and projects.

Day One reviews three basic financial reports and ratios under GAAP accounting.  Then participants read, interpret and analyze your company’s financial reports and key performance ratios.  All these ratios are integrated together in one model so people can trace and link all performance metrics to build a scorecard. They learn product costs, setting prices, selecting business strategy, and choosing the best decisions to achieve that strategy. 

Day Two gets teams to forecast revenues and costs, develop a budget, and manage against their budget.  They learn to calculate capital requirements for new products or projects, and compute the cost of capital, define product costs and set prices  They learn to prepare appropriation requests and calculate the time value of money, new present value, payback and hurdle rates.  Finally, each team prepares a capital project justification which they present to others for critique.

Learning Model - This type of course is usually taught with dry lectures, long cases and pre-existing reports, which students tear apart trying to place and remember where each number came from. This method only creates confusion and apathy.

In  Business Acumen  Advanced, students learn and work in a team with a computer simulation of a start up business, NOT a board game.  They choose a business strategy: (1) low cost producer, (2) choose only high value customers, (3) or a blended approach.  Each team makes operational and tactical decisions  to achieve their strategy within strict time limits. They raise capital, borrow funds, set prices, hire staff and order equipment, with immediate feedback on results.  They see funds on screen flow into each account on each report right before their eyes; key ratios are updated on a master spreadsheet.

Key Learning Points

DAY ONE
Review of 3 Key Financial Reports and Performance Ratios and your company’s latest financials
Learn how to effectively use the automated spreadsheets and templates  
Set business strategies and make decisions to achieve them
Define product costs and choose a pricing strategy;  set product prices

DAY  TWO
Understand the Price Elasticity of Demand
Prepare Forecast of Revenues and Costs - set budget; manage a business against a budget; plan vs. actual
Identify Capital Allocation Strategies used by senior management
Prepare Capital Appropriation Requests (CAR) and cost benefit analysis for new products, programs and capital investment projects
Implement new product or project and see financial impacts

Recommended For:

For Program and Project Managers, Product and Brand Managers, or anyone with profit and loss reponsibility who manages against a budget and makes or decides on capital investment requests.