Dollars and Sense

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Finance and Accounting for the non-Financial Manager

Competencies: financial management, self-development

Who benefits: upwardly mobile non-financial employees, consultants to executives and managers

Consultant Usage: coaching referrals, consultant self-development

What’s it about?  Last week I discussed using this site for review of literature and other sources related to competencies.  In summary, some competencies every reader needs; others are specific, narrow and only needed by a few.  Today I am taking a middle road.  I want to offer a few thoughts about financial competencies for those of us who are fiscally challenged. 

If I were offered the opportunity to go back in time and start my career all over, one change I would make for sure is to acquire some financial insight to add to my consultant’s tool bag.  I can’t tell you how many times I had to “fake it” or plead ignorance when involved in the business end of business.  I didn’t realize until late in the game how much more effective I would have/could have been if I had been financially savvy.

The best course would, of course, been a course.  For those of you who would like to profit (“profit” – get it?) from my mistakes and consider yourself upwardly mobile, here are four of the best-known seminars on finance for the novice. 

If you are in the East, probably the most respected (and definitely one of the most expensive) is the 5-day program at Wharton and the University of Pennsylvania.  Finance and Accounting for the Non-Financial Manager teaches how financial data is generated and reported, as well as how it is used for decision making, analysis, and valuation

If you are in the Mid-West, the University of Michigan, Ross School of Management offers a 5-day program Finance for the Nonfinancial Manager: The basics of finance and accounting.  The course description says in part that this “program develops your financial analysis capabilities to improve communication with people in financial areas, contribute to financial decisions, and better understand financial statements and the impact of strategic decisions on shareholder value.”

On the West Coast, Stanford University offers one of the best 5-day programs, Finance and Accounting for the Nonfinancial Executive, and it certainly has one of the best descriptions complete with incentives: “Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow, ratio, variable, EVA, LIFO, FIFO — for many executives, the terms of accounting and finance seem like a foreign language. What do these terms mean and how do they relate to your role in your organization? How do your decisions affect your organization’s profitability? Most important, how can you utilize these concepts to become a greater asset to your company.”

If you are in Southern California and want a little shorter version, try USC’s 3-day Understanding Finance and Accounting.

One final thought.  These are some of the few courses you can ask your boss to go to and impress the boss.  What (excellent) boss doesn’t want her/his employees to understand the business end of business better?

If you are not in the mood for a seminar or workshop, you can always read up on the subject.  I suggest you take a look at one of these two books: Finance And Accounting For Nonfinancial Managers: All The Basics You Need to Know (2003) or The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course In Finance for Non-Financial Managers (2004).  The first is an easier read; the second is more text book. 

And if you do read one of these books, make sure you casually mention to the boss that you did read said book and are a whole lot more money smart as a result.  Let no hard work go unnoticed!

Catch you next week.

 

[tags]financial programs, finance and accounting for the non-financial managers, financial books, income statements, balance sheets, cash flow, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley[/tags]

 

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.