PROGRAM DETAILS

Introduction

This course examines the multi dimensional study of risk with aspects of financial risk, governance and ethical risk and addresses more traditional practices of risk management. Risk Management now a key driver in business and there is a rapidly increasing requirement for MSc graduates to provide core risk management assistance. Few organisations today would make any major decisions concerning new projects without first assessing the risks involved.

Risk management is a key discipline in its own right, but also needs to meet the requirements of corporate governance and ethical practice. As the importance of this area grows following the global credit crunch and recent financial scandals there is a growing demand for highly motivated individuals who can operate successfully within this field internationally and cross-culturally.

This course is designed to provide individuals with the opportunity to develop the core competencies and technical skills, which will enable them to contribute to and to flourish in such an environment. In particular students will develop and apply their decision-making skills to complex practical situations. The comparison of theory and practice provides a rich source of material in this area and serves to prepare participants for a variety of possible roles within an international business organisation.

Learning Objectives

This course will help you learn how to:

• Specify the exact nature and scope of corporate financial reporting
• Identify and criticize specific concepts, rules, and procedures are in place for corporate financial reporting
• How & why Working Capital is critical in today’s world
• What Working Capital options must be managed & how to do so
• How & why Capital Structure can make or break a firm
• What decisions must be made to properly decide on optimal Capital Structure
• How & why Capital Budgeting can go so wrong if not performed properly
• Capital Budgeting should usually add value to the firm
• Identify and overcome limitations that are inherent in corporate financial reporting and/or corporate governance
• Risk as a positive in analysis & decision making

Target Audience

The course is designed for mid to senior level executives with an interest in Risk and Governance issues including:

• Public and Community professionals
• Company Secretaries, auditing and accounting consultants
• Project managers
• Insurance managers and adjustors
• Construction, Health & Safety executives
• Legal consultants
• Financial services professionals
• Investment Analysts and Banking professionals..

This workshop will be highly participatory and your seminar leader will present, guide and facilitate learning, using a range of methods including discussions, case studies and exercises. Where appropriate, these will include real issues brought to the workshop by delegates.

Lessons learned from the seminar will be applied to your own organization. Key performance indicators (KPIs) for the critical success factors (CSFs) will focus attention on high priority action plans for taking back to your organization.

Attendees will gain by participation in this program as a result of:

• Increased skill set in relevant phases of finance/governance
• Greater ability to participate in and to lead the finance/governance process
• Recognizing the increased professionalism to deal with the current and future risk and governance topics
• Increased recognition by the organization of their learning and professional commitment
• Challenging themselves in an immersive learning environment

The organization will benefit by:

• Improved appreciation for the finance/ governance approach
• Better integration of business plans and strategic intent
• Reduced inter-functional territorial battles
• Improvements in communications between staff and line management
• Higher productivity during the decision making process

Core Competencies

Attendees will gain in the following competencies as a result of the program:

• Using financial information for guiding decisions
• Clarifying KPIs across different functions
• Building strategic thinking and implementation orientation into their professional lives
• Challenging the status quo of finance/governance, risk management, and decision making
• Recognizing the value of external standards, governance requirements, and measurements of qualitative elements
• Identifying Value Creation principles as the driving force for decision making

Program Content

Module- what is Finance & Working Capital – liquidity or bankruptcy

• Finance is a numbers game
• Yet finance is more than the numbers
• The three major components of finance
• Working capital (WC) defined
• Relationship to current ratio
• Components of WC
• Inventory
• Accounts receivable
• Cash
• Accounts payable
• Notes payable
• The critical ratios to compute
• What should they be & why
• The questions to ask
• The answers you want

Module- Capital Structure – what it is & why it is important

• Equity capital – what it is
• Equity capital – calculating it costs/required rate of return
• Debt capital – what is it really
• Debt capital – calculating it costs/required rate of return
• Weighted Cost of Capital (WACC) – why it is so important
• Calculating your WACC
• When & how to use WACC
• Leverage: two-edged sword – defined
• Operating leverage – calculated
• Financial leverage – calculated
• Combined leverage – Wow! Look at the impact

Module – CAPEX – Analysis of Investment Decisions with What-if Risks

• Cash Flows and the Time Value of Money
• Discuss the capital project evaluation process
• Ideas for the future with a multiple time periods horizon
• Estimating cash flows within the business system
• Net present value (NPV) & Internal Rate of Return (IRR) as preferred methods
• Defining the approval criteria and review process
• Post-implementation audits of capital projects
• Refinements of Investment Analysis
• Dealing with Risk and Changing Circumstances
• Benchmarking Discount & Hurdle rates

Module – Risk Management as an integral part of Corporate Governance

• Understanding uncertainty and risk/opportunity
• Identifying strategic financial risks
• Identifying operational risks
• Identifying functional financial risks
• Assessing financial risks in each perspective
• Finding our personal risk profile (appetite for risk)
• Clarifying desired outcomes, expected outcomes, and actual outcomes
• Performance measures – the need for FRM/ERM
• Quantitative and qualitative risks
• Developing Financial Risk Management /Enterprise Risk Management strategy – do we need a Chief Risk Officer?
• Other risk issues to be concerned with: Joint ventures, alliances, product liability, environmental risk, outsourcing risk, growth risk, R&D risk, natural disasters, catastrophic risks, supply chain risk, reputation risk, and psychology of risk among others

Module – Corporate Governance

• What is Corporate Governance?
• Corporate Governance environment
• Relevance of Corporate Governance
• Perspectives on Corporate Governance
  • Shareholders vs. Stakeholders
  • Voluntary vs. Enforcement
  • 1-tier vs. 2-tier boards
  • Chairman/CEO duality
  • The independent director
• Corporate Governance models
• Structure & practices
• Emerging trends in Corporate Governance
• Principal-Agent theory and applications
• Independence in fact versus appearance

Course review -Course critique-Course close