Finance for Non-Financial Leaders

Increase your influence and ability to lead with an improved understanding of finance and the language of business in this focussed, interactive and collaborative three-week programme.

Finance is the global language of business. Through financial reporting, businesses communicate their financial position and performance and reveal their main strengths and weaknesses. This highly experiential programme, led by award-winning Cass Professor, Danielle Lyssimachou, will demystify the language of finance and equip non-financial leaders with the necessary tools and fluency to derive value from this language.

By attending the programme, you will learn how to review and interpret financial information and how to identify the key value drivers of financial success. You will also learn how to use managerial accounting tools to help build more effective business cases. Upon completion of the programme, you will become more confident in the language of finance, build competency in reviewing and communicating financial information and improve your ability to influence resources and articulate business impact with your colleagues and stakeholders.

Benefits for you

• Build your confidence in speaking the financial language of your business and improve your ability to communicate financial priorities, measures and issues to benefit the business
• Learn how to read and interpret financial statements from a user’s perspective
• Appreciate the difference between profit and cash generation and how the two are not the same
• Learn about the three key financial drivers of success and how business use them to deliver shareholder returns.
• Learn how to best articulate the financial side of a business case and how to provide constructive feedback to investment appraisal proposals
• Appreciate the choice and judgement inherent in the world of accounting and finance and why that matters.

Benefits for your organisation

• Develop business leaders who can confidently communicate in the language of finance and appreciate its nuances
• Develop the competency among your non-finance leaders to read and interpret key financial information and how their function contributes towards your organisation’s financial goals
• Engage non-finance leaders in a genuine dialogue about financial priorities
• Develop business leaders who can provide constructive feedback on financial proposals

Focus and structure

Days 1 - 2: Demystifying the main financial statements

During the first two days of this programme, we will demystify the main financial statements from a non-finance user’s perspective. You will build your fluency by learning what key accounting and finance terms mean and how to use them when communicating with key stakeholders and gain a better understanding of how profit and cash generation differs. You will learn how companies can lawfully manage their profitability through the use of accounting choices and judgements and that, in fact, accounting is not a mere straightforward mathematical exercise.

Day 3: Analysing financial information

In this important session, you will learn how to analyse financial information, with the aim of identifying the three drivers of financial success, both at an industry and company level. You will learn about these key financial success drivers, what influences them and how they contribute to success. You will apply your learning to various company settings to gain an understanding of the drivers of success across different industries and business models.

Day 4: Informed Decision Making

The final day of the programmes exposes you to managerial accounting and how to evaluate the financial impact of a business case. You will explore the importance of concepts such as opportunity costs, sunk costs and contribution for articulating your business case. In addition, you will appreciate how investment decisions are made and learn how to ask value-adding questions and critique the methodologies employed.