Finance for Executives

This five-day executive programme is designed and delivered by some of the world’s leading faculty in corporate finance. It will empower you to use financial tools to make better decisions and become even greater assets to your organisation.

Many executives ascend to positions of great responsibility with less knowledge of finance than they desire. This essential programme is an expertly designed overview of the crucial frameworks and tools of modern corporate finance. Over five intensive days, this programme breaks down the barriers faced by managers and directors, and equips participants with tools that are immediately applicable in any organisation. The Finance for Executives course at the LSE empowers executives to use financial tools to make better decisions and become even greater assets to their organisation.

This fast-paced, highly interactive course combines case studies, lectures, exercises, spreadsheet modelling and classroom discussions to explore the most useful tools of corporate finance. These tools include, but are not limited to, corporate financial analysis and forecasting, capital budgeting, and project and company valuation. Every day of the programme introduces new tools and concepts, explores and evaluates them, and immediately applies them to real-world case studi

Programme benefits

• Develop the skills required to critically assess the financial health and needs of your firm
• Understand and practice how to allocate financial (and other) resources optimally
• Confidently evaluatemajor investment projects and entire companies
• Assess the attractiveness of investments through discounted cash flow (DCF) modelling and analysis
• Communicate more effectively with the finance function in your own organisation
• Communicate on a level-playing field with key sources of outside financing such as lenders and shareholders.

Programme structure

Programme schedule (subject to change): This is an interactive and highly case-based course

Day one

• Introduction to the course
• Accounting review
• Assessing the financial health of a firm
  • Financial statement analysis
  • Financial and operating ratios
• Forecasting funding needs
  • Sources & uses analysis
  • Sustainable growth
• Case study 1
• Introduction to valuation
  • Cash flow forecasting
  • Discounting and NPV

Day two

• Optimal investment decisions
  • Allocating resources within and across firms
• Valuing investment projects
• Discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis
  • Calculating Free Cash Flow
  • Sensitivity & scenario analysis
• Case Studies 2 & 3

Day three

• Interacting with capital markets
  • Shareholders
  • Lenders
• Cost of capital and the pricing of risk
  • The risk-return trade-off
  • Betas and alphas
• Optimal capital structure
  • Bond ratings and default
  • Tax benefits of debt
• Optimal payout policies
• Case Study 4

Day four

• Valuing entire companies
  • Terminal value calculations
• Valuation by comparables
  • Valuation multiples
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Case Study 5

Day five

• Applications of project and company valuation
• Case Study 6
• Course wrap-up
• Exam

Course outcomes

• Develop the skills required to critically assess the financial health and needs of your firm
• Understand and practice how to allocate financial (and other) resources optimally
• Confidently evaluate major investment projects and entire companies
• Assess the attractiveness of investments through discounted cash flow (DCF) modelling and analysis
• Communicate more effectively with the finance function in your own organisation
• Communicate on a level-playing field with key sources of outside financing such as lenders and shareholders