The Oxford Financial Excellence Programme

Module I

Corporate Financial Planning, Budgeting & Control

Day 1

Corporate Financial Planning

• Strategic Planning

• The Objective of the Firm – meeting Shareholder & Stakeholder Objectives

• Agency Theory – the relationship between Shareholders & Management

• Creative Accounting and the Case of Enron

• Preparing a Strategic Plan

• Financial Management & Financial Planning – the Scope, Role & Responsibilities of Financial Management

• Preparing a Financial Plan – The Master Budget

• Forecasting Future Cash-flows

  • Time Series Analysis

  • Correlation & Regression

• Financial Modelling

Day 2

Financing the Plan

• Sources of Finance – Long Term & Short Term

• Evaluation of the Types of Finance

  • Equity Finance

  • Debt Finance

  • Hybrid Finance & Financial Engineering

• The Dividend Decision

• The Cost of Capital

• Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC)

• Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)

• The Capital Investment Process

• Payback

• Accounting Rate of Return (ARR)

• Net Present Value (NPV)

• Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

• Capital Investment Appraisal

• Capital Rationing

Day 3

Preparing & Managing Budgets to support the Financial Plans

• Definition of Budgets

• The Budgetary Process

• Types of Budgets

  • Fixed

  • Flexible

  • Incremental

  • Zero Based

  • Activity-Based Budgets

• The Purpose/Benefits & Problems/Limitations of Budgets

• Setting/Implementing Effective Budgets - Eliminating the Problems

• Budgetary Control

• Responsibility Accounting and Absorption Costing

• Activity-Based Budgeting/Costing (ABB, ABC)

• Variance Analysis

• Cost Behaviour & Break-Even Analysis

• Sensitivity/What-If Analysis

• What-If Analysis combined with Du-Pont Analysis

Day 4

Managing and Controlling Cashflow to support the Financial Plan

• Cash versus Profit

• The Cash Conversion Cycle

• Calculating and Managing the Cashflow Cycle

• Cash Flow Ratios

• Working Capital

• The Cost of Maintaining Working Capital

• Maintaining the Optimum level of Working Capital

• Working Investment Ratios

• Preparing a Monthly Cash Flow Forecast

Day 5

Managing Financial Risk

• Risk Management

• Types of Risk

• Identifying Risk – SWOT Analysis

• The Major Quantitative & Qualitative Risks Facing Companies

• Establishing a Risk Management Strategy

• Financial Risk Management & Hedging Techniques

• Financial Risks

• Managing Exchange Rate & Interest Rate Risk

• Derivatives

  • Forwards

  • Futures

  • Options

  • Swaps

• Risk Management Glossary of Terms

Module II

The Oxford 5-Day MBA in Finance

DAY 6

An Introduction to the Financial Markets

• An introduction to the equity markets:

  • IPO

  • Market Indices

  • International Equity Market Links

• An introduction to bond markets

• Long Term versus Short Term

• Treasury versus Corporate

• Types of Bond

• The spot and forward market

• Exchange Rate trends and linkages

• Carry Trades

• Futures

• Options

• An introduction to the FX market

• An introduction to the Derivatives Market

• The link between risk and return

DAY 7

Evaluating Investment Opportunities

• The Markowitz model of Portfolio Risk

• The Capital Asset Pricing Model

  • A practical application of the CAPM to a range of companies

• The time value of money and discounted cash flow techniques

• The Gordon Growth Model

• A practical application of forecasting dividends

• Determining the Cost of Debt

• The Ameritrade Case

• The importance of the cost of capital

• Scenario analysis

• The weighted average cost of capital (WACC)

• A practical application of the IRR approach

• Pitfalls in using the IRR approach

• Investment Appraisal using the Net Present Value approach

• Payback and adjusted Payback

• The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) approach

• Real Options

DAY 8

A Walkthrough an Annual Report

• The Balance Sheet

• The Income Statement

• The Cash Flow Statement

• Ratio Analysis

• A practical application of Ratio Analysis:

  • Apple v Microsoft

  • Next v Tesco

  • Easyjet v British Airways

• Forecasting Sales

• The cost of sales approach

DAY 9

The Corporate Financing Decision

• Financial Leverage

  • Modigliani and Millers Theory of Capital Structure

  • The Risk of Bankruptcy

  • The Optimal Capital Structure

• The Dividend Decision

• The clientele effect

• The taxation effect

• The principal-agent problem

• The market for Corporate Control

DAY 10

Risk Management

• Hedging Exchange Rate risk using:

  • the forward market

  • the options market

  • zero-cost collars

• Hedging commodity price risk using:

• Options

• Futures

• Practical Application of airlines hedging fuel price risk- the importance of correlation