Building The 21st Century Finance Function

Introduction

World-class organizations have a new vision for the role of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the finance function as key business partners; the most enlightened companies are already well on the road to realizing this vision. In the globally competitive world of the 21st century an organization can only hope to succeed if the finance function can shake off its traditional ‘back-room’ image and partner and engage with the organization to help to build a critical competitive advantage in some key areas.

This leading-edge course explains:

• The big challenges facing today’s CFO and finance team
• The role of the 21st-century finance in
  • Creating and delivering value to key stakeholders
  • Providing enterprise performance management systems
  • Strategic activity-based decision making
  • Identifying and managing risk
  • Developing vision and team leadership in the finance function

Objectives

The objectives of the course are to enable delegates to:

• Identify the challenges facing the 21st-century finance function and develop the concepts and tools to participate in the transformation of the finance function into a value-focused business partner
• Develop strategic thinking, understand and participate in the strategic management process; to develop their company’s vision and values and carry out strategic financial analysis and planning
• Understand the process by which their organization creates and delivers value to its key stakeholders and help to develop the right tools to facilitate and assist this process
• Understand and manage the drivers of shareholder value; develop and implement powerful Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) systems in their own organizations
• Understand how the finance function can add value through effective risk management using up to date key driver forecasts for sensitivity analysis and risk management strategies
• Improve organizational decision making using modern approaches to understanding cost behavior and value pricing; understand how Activity-Based Management (ABM) is key to this
• Understand the importance of visionary leadership in transforming the role of the finance function
• Consider and select key areas for finance function process improvement

Training Methodology

This is an interactive course. There will be open question and answer sessions, regular group exercises and activities, videos, case studies, and presentations on best practices. Participants will have the opportunity to share with the facilitator and other participants on what works well and not so well for them, as well as work on issues from their own organizations. The online course is conducted online using MS-Teams/ClickMeeting.

Who Should Attend?

• Chief executives and Chief Operating Officers of companies and business divisions
• Finance Directors, Chief Financial Officers, and Financial Controllers
• Financial Managers and other finance professionals and accountants
• Strategic planning managers and budget officers
• Managers being prepared or with the potential to assume key finance posts in the company

Course Outline

Day 1: 21st Century Challenges for the Finance Function

• The burden of detail and compliance
• The increasing pressures on time and cost
• Key questions for the 21st century CFO
• The ‘T’ shaped finance professional as a business partner
• The modern finance toolkit

Finance Role in Creating and Delivering Value to Key Stakeholders

• Understanding the strategic context of the challenge
• Defining organizational vision and values
• Using strategic analysis tools
• Defining and developing a winning business model
• Formulating the right strategy for the business and the parent
• How a strategic approach to finance adds value
• Using the right tools: balanced scorecards

Day 2: Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Systems

• Defining and delivering shareholder value
• Why 70% of organizations fail to achieve planned success
• Using a Performance Management System to link strategy to operations
• Understanding and using strategic themes and maps
• Understanding and defining key financial objectives and their drivers
• Mapping shareholder value improvement to organizational improvement areas
• Practical tips on identifying key success factors (KSF’s)
• Defining and building a balanced scorecard four your organization
• Developing key performance indicators (KPI’s) and key results indicators (KRI’s)
• Using the right tools: Economic Value Added (EVA) Shareholder Value Added (SVA)

Day 3: Strategic Activity-Based Decision Making

• Understanding cost behavior
• The shortcomings of traditional approaches to calculating profit
• An activity-based approach to understanding cost behavior
• A strategic approach to pricing products and services
• Calculating the profitability of customers, products, and services
• Strategic activity-based decision making
• Strategic cost reduction
• Using the right tools: Activity-Based Costing (ABC) and Budgeting (ABB)
• Case study: using ABC to improve decision making
• The shortcomings of and alternatives to traditional budgeting systems

Day 4: Identifying and Managing Risk

• Defining and identifying risk
• Classifying and understanding risk
• Treating and managing risk as an opportunity
• Quantifying and evaluating risk
• Using risk to inform investment decisions
• Using effective investment appraisal tools
• Identifying key risks and key business drivers
• Designing and using forecasts to manage risk
• Designing and using forecasts to manage cash flow
• Best practice in using Excel™ forecasts for effective decision making
• Using the right tools: Discounted Cash Flow models; PESTLE analysis
• Case study: using Excel™ to build a ‘what if’ key driver forecast

Day 5: Leading and the 21st Century Finance Function

• The role of the visionary CFO
• Why 21st-century organizations need more leaders
• Understanding the importance of organizational culture
• Challenges and approach to managing change
• Building and leading the winning team

Improving Finance Function Systems and Processes

• Transforming the finance function: back office to the front line
• Executing a ‘fast close’ to improve finance resource usage
• Why world-class organizations are moving to shared services
• A decentralized approach to organizational management
• Beyond Budgeting: Adaptive Management Processes
• Using the right tools: implementing rolling forecasts
• Case study: Handelsbanken – leaders in decentralized decision making