Purdue University Faculty Specialization

MBA Strategic Financial Management*

Why financial management?

To assess business health and help business leaders grow their business. Proactively providing business including financial-management tools and techniques needed to support an organization’s competitiveness, improve its performance, and help the organization accomplish its strategy. Through an evidence-based approach, turning data into insightful information for management and executive teams to make informed business decisions. Leveraging business and financial information to “tell the story” and “paint a picture.” Ultimately addressing, “How’s business?”

• Strategy, Financial Management, and Financial Reporting
• Planning and Decision Making
• Operational-Level Performance Measurement and Control
• Management-Level Control including Strategic Performance Measurement

Strategic (highest level), operational (mid-level), and tactical (low level)

*Expertise with an emphasis on professional service providers

Topics

• Business partner to CEOs, business owners, and executive teams
• Role of CFO and financial executives with business administration oversight including facilities management, human resources, information technology, and risk management
• Equipping both financial and nonfinancial leaders and managers with financial and nonfinancial resources to lead organizations through strategic planning and execution.

Course Goals

The overall goal of the course is to provide participants a working framework for strategic decision making with an emphasis on informed decision making. The course covers how information is collected and processed by accounting systems, converting data into objective, evidence-based information for business leaders.

The role of finance leaders, including CFOs as key executives and other financial executives, continues to evolve. As most trusted business advisor and partner to leadership teams, CFOs are increasingly responsible for business administration oversight including human resources, information technology, risk management and other areas of responsibility. In addition to their finance expertise, accounting and finance leaders play an integral role in the strategy and operations of organizations.

Learning Objectives

This course provides participants with an understanding of:

1. Strategy, financial management, and financial reporting
2. Planning and decision making
3. Operational-level performance measurement and control
4. Management-level control including strategic performance measurement

Learning Outcomes

• Through experiential learning, apply current best practice business advisory and financial leadership techniques to business settings. These include strategy pyramids, strategy maps, balanced scorecards, and budgeting/forecasting.
• Demonstrate knowledge of effective advisory or consulting techniques through business case study. Culminating in recommendations for a business including an executive summary and presentation.
• Establish ongoing key takeaways with recurring timeframes to continue applying best practices in business settings subsequent to course conclusion.

Strategy, Financial Management and Financial Reporting

• Financial including revenue, expenditure, and cash flow management and strategy
• Implementing strategy: Value chain, balanced scorecard, and strategy map
• Financial management concepts
• Financial resource capacity management and allocation and segment reporting (i.e., departments, locations, business units/segments)

Planning and Decision Making

• Financial projections
• Short-term profit planning: Cost-Volume-Profit (CVP) analysis
• Strategy and operational budget including budget-to-actual variances
• Decision making with a strategic emphasis
• Strategic pricing

Operational-Level Performance Measurement and Control

• Financial and nonfinancial performance measures
• Resource capacity management
• Further analysis of productivity and sales
• Quality management and control, exceeding client and customer expectations

 Management-Level Control

• Strategic performance measurement: Cost centers, profits centers, and balanced scorecard including leading and lagging indicators
• Management compensation, business analysis, and business valuation

Prior Courses

Accounting Information Systems (AIS) | Purdue University Fort Wayne

• ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM (customer relationship management) systems
• Accounting cycle and financial reporting
• Current trends in technology including artificial intelligence, business analytics, and cybersecurity
• Cross-functional topics in AIS at the intersection of financial reporting, management accounting reporting, management, and auditing (i.e., internal controls)

Courses at Prior Institutions

• Developed and led “finance and communication” and “operations management” for Steel Dynamics (Fortune 500) “Dynamic Development” executive leadership development program.
• Facilitated accounting information systems, accounting internships, accounting seminars, advanced accounting, auditing, cost accounting, MBA fraud examination, and personal finance/financial responsibility.