BZR821 Financial Strategy
Credit points: 30
Summary
This course explores the accounting and finance issues that face organizations at board
level and will enable you to feel at ease working with finance and accounting experts. By
the end of the course you should have a grasp of the fundamentals of financial analysis
and financial theory and know how to tackle the main financial problems you are likely to
encounter at work.
Description
Financial strategy is a topic of importance to middle and senior line managers, who
will meet a multiplicity of financial problems in their organizations, and this course is
of interest to anyone who wants to develop their knowledge of the area. The aim of the
course is to introduce finance and accounting problems that organizations face at board
level, and to enable you to feel at ease working with finance and accounting experts. By
the end of the course you will have a grasp of the fundamentals of corporate financial
theory and know how to tackle the main financial problems you are likely to come across.
You will also be able to understand and analyse company accounts in different situations.
Most accounting and finance courses in business schools treat accounting and finance as
separate topics, failing to exploit the relationships that the two have in practice; for
example, managers might be judged on their ability to achieve the financial objective of
maximizing share value through internal accounting performance measures. The course
explains how accounting and finance interact, as well as giving the key techniques
applicable to both accounting and financial analysis. Another difference between this
course and more conventional courses is that it considers both public and private sector
finance issues. The boundary between public sector and private sector is, in any case,
increasingly blurred as public sector organizations are forced to compete in the private
sector or are privatized while private sector organizations are made to be accountable to
society as a whole, not just to shareholders. Many students are alarmed at the thought of
taking a finance course because they expect it to be dull and difficult. This course is
neither. It is full of case studies, examples and even cartoons which show how relevant
finance is to all aspects of management. It also uses multimedia to get the concepts of
financial theory across. From spreadsheets to CD-ROMs, videos to course reader, you will
have substantial support in learning the key concepts of finance. By the end of the course
you should have no difficulty with financial jargon and you will be more than able to hold
your own in the world of finance.
The course has ten principal modules, designed to take you from an introduction to
corporate finance through to relating finance to the other activities of an organization.
The topics are financial analysis, understanding accounts, financial appraisal, finance
and investment, finance tools, project appraisal, company appraisal, risk management and
instruments, strategic implications, internal and external finance. Computer conferencing
and use of the internet are also part of the course.
By the end of the course you should:
- Appreciate the financial strategy issues that affect organizations.
- Understand the relevance of finance and accounting both within the organization and to
stakeholders.
- Be able to undertake a financial analysis of an organization and interpret the results
in the context of lending and investing decisions.
- Be able to make investment and financing decisions, both for projects and for companies.
- Be aware of the financing choices available to organizations, and how financial
structure should be determined.
- Assess the financial risks that organizations face, in particular credit, interest and
foreign exchange risk, and be able to adopt risk-hedging strategies that suit the risk
profile of the organization concerned.
- Understand how organizations measure financial performance internally and how their
financial performance is assessed by stakeholders in a global context.
Vocational relevance
BZR821 is related to N/SVQs in operational management and strategic management at Level
5.
Entry
You can take this course on its own, or as part of our MBA programme. To register for
the MBA you must, normally, have a degree or equivalent professional qualification, and
you should be aged at least 25 and have significant experience at middle management level
or higher. If you are taking the course as part of an MBA we expect you to have already
completed Stage 1 and the compulsory Stage 2 course BZR820 Strategy. In its structure and
approach the course recognizes that most students are not specialists in finance and
accounting, but it does build on the considerable knowledge of accounting and finance
issues developed in those courses. If you have not taken them or have any doubt about the
suitability of the course, please seek advice from your Regional Centre.
What's included
Course books, other printed materials, audio cassettes or CDs, video cassettes,
CD-ROMs, conferencing facilities, website.
You will need
Video player and an audio cassette or CD player; computer as described in our Personal
Computing leaflet and a subscription to an internet service provider.
Support from your tutor
You will have a tutor who will help you with the course material and mark and comment
on your written work, and whom you can ask for advice and guidance. You will contact your
tutor by telephone, correspondence, e-mail and computer conferences. We may be able to
offer group tutorials or day-schools that you are encouraged, but not obliged, to attend.
Where tutorials are held will depend on the distribution of students taking the course.
Ask your Regional Centre if you need to know more before you decide whether to register.
Your Regional Centre will provide you with both general and certain specialist help with
your studies.
Assessment
There are three tutor-marked assignments and an examination.
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