Advanced Business Strategies and Financial Analysis

Advanced Business Strategies and Financial Analysis

OBJECTIVES:

By the end of this training program, each participant will be able to:

1. Apply the latest financial analysis and forecasting techniques
2. Identify and evaluate key business and environmental risks
3. Perform advanced company analysis including cashflow and shareholder value analysis
4. Assess business performance through the analysis of financial statements
5. Perform an appraisal of a corporate’s strategy and develop alternative strategic options

Course Outline:

A 5-day course providing a comprehensive framework for strategic business & financial analysis

BUSINESS ANALYSIS AND APPRAISAL OFSTRATEGIC DIRECTION

Back to basics

• Review of conventional approaches to analysis
• Examine components involved in comprehensive business evaluation
• Establish the key drivers, both external and internal, which create the business strategy and recognize the effects on cycles for different industries.

ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

Examine the key risk areas today

• Political
• Economic
• Social
• Technological
• Authority
• Security
• Ecology

Industry audit

• Evaluating the key factors, which drive an industry
• Recognising strategic groups
• Adopting the correct strategy given the strategic grouping
• Examine the key success factors for an industry
• Case Study
• Carry out an industry audit and evaluate the key success factors for two companies.

Life cycles

• Examining the five forces across industries and establish defense strategies, relative to life cycles
• The effect on the five “p’s “of life cycle position
• Regeneration
• Linkage with the environment and economic cycles

PORTER’S FIVE FORCES 

The importance of using the forces in an analytical environment

• What makes a “good” industry
• What makes a “difficult” industry

Industry determinants

• Asset structures
• Margins
• Funding sources

The corporate - overview

• Consider the internal and external pressure on a business
• Recognize the importance of vision and leadership

Leadership

• The world turned upside down
• Visions and missions
• Styles

Management

• Levels and skill base required
• Structures
• Adding value
• Case Study
• Assess the quality of management in a company. Examine how the management has acted to add value in short and long term. Identify further strategies to add value.

Information needs

• How to get & manage the information you need to make a constructive analysis
• Sources
• •WOT analysis
• Case Study
• Use this information and the business audit to formulate a more appropriate strategic direction for a company.

Product/ Service

• Building strategies
• Life cycle
• Brand
• Mix
• Supply chain
• Value added
• Customer risk
• Case Study
• Working with published financial information – a structured approach to company analysis of a company.

ANALYSING FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Profit analysis – the essentials           

• Examining the profit & loss account (income statement)
• What is profit?
• Manipulating profit to the detriment of the balance sheet
• Improving the quality of published financial statements
• Analysis of business unit performance
• Asset and financing structures
• Case Study
• Analyze the performance of a company using profit & loss account and balance sheet analysis.

Accounting for cash

• Importance of cash and cash flow
• Relationship between profit and cash
• Preparing and using cash flow statement & analysis to identify a company’s position
• Cash generators & cash uses
• Case Study
• Using a company to demonstrate the power of cash flow analysis and its advantages over more conventional methods.

Comparative and peer group analysis

• How to work out where you are in relation to your peers using financial tools
• Case Study
• Complete the analysis of a company by evaluating its performance relative to the standards provided.

Analyzing, interpreting and evaluating company reports

• The importance of working capital management
• Credit analysis
• Trends in performance indicators
• Predicting risk of default or bankruptcy

Equity analysis

• Introduction to models for valuing companies
• Value drivers, historical analysis and the forecasting of future financial performance
• Case Study
• Participants use manual or computer methods to forecast the earnings and cash flow of a company.

How to calculate a short-term share valuation. Company visits and report preparation

• Know the questions to ask on visits
• Understand what makes a report work and hold the reader’s attention

Financial analysis – a managerial perspective of value based management

• Cost-volume-profit analysis, break-even points, and margins of safety
• Cost determination
• Efficiency
• Case Study
• Calculate the break-even point and margin of safety for a company.

Structured financial analysis

• Using the forecast to identify the free cash flow
• Dealing with the terminal value
• Completing the valuation

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS – A MANAGERIAL PERSPECTIVE

Strategic position and action evaluation

• Indicators
• Direction
• Past
• Present
• Future
• Case Study
• Strategic positioning linked to SPACE for a company.

BRINGING IT TOGETHER FULL STRUCTURED RISK ANALYSIS AND FORECASTING FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Risk analysis

• Environment
• Industry
• Management
• Business
• Financial
• Cash flow
• Case Study
• Comprehensive analysis and report on a multinational, multi-segmental corporate. Analyze the company's financial statements and prepare a multi-year forecast.
• Perform appraisal of strategic direction for a Company. Develop alternative strategic options, which could create shareholder value.
• Participants will provide insights to the company's future prospects and its cash flows over time. Review subsequent performance and assess the value and

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

• Senior Corporate Management of any discipline requiring a better understanding of   business behavior and strategic development
• Bankers requiring improved analytical skills and understanding of business
• Investment Fund and Venture Capital Managers
• Corporate Financiers particularly those responsible for origination
• Economists
• Accountants, lawyers, management and business consultants
• Investment Banking, Credit, Financial Control and
• Strategy & Development Staff