Financial Strategy

Financial strategists working in corporations and firms are responsible for making key financial assessments on behalf of the organisation. On a day to day basis, a financial strategist must analyse sets of financial data in order to make educated recommendations about the best way to handle a business’ funds and generate profit.

During the course of the qualification, learndirect’s students will complete six engaging modules. These online home study units have been designed build on a student’s pre-existing financial knowledge and familiarise them with all of the key issues and concepts in the field. Altogether, the course should take approximately 120 hours to complete.

Who Should Study This Course? 

This Level 4 home learning course has been designed to build on our finance and accounting qualification. However, as there are no entry requirements for this course, it is not essential that students complete this qualification first.

As long as students have an interest in financial strategy, the motivation to engage in independent home study, and a way to access our interactive e-learning materials, then they are free to enrol today.

What Happens After The Course? 

On successful completion of this financial strategy course, students will have a broader understanding of how strategic financial analysis works. They will also feel more comfortable working with and discussing corporate finance and strategy.

Modules:

• Unit 1: Introductory Issues and Concepts
• Introduction
• Objectives
• Role of the financial manager
• The finance decision
• Concept of value
• Value determinants
• Risk-return trade-off
• The accountant versus the strategist
• Delivering value
• Limitations on value-creating behaviour
• Corporate governance
• Summary
• Unit 2: Company Valuation
• Introduction
• Objectives
• Valuation of quoted companies
• Valuing unquoted companies using alternative valuation techniques
• Shareholder value analysis (SVA)
• Summary
• Unit 3: Investment Decisions
• Introduction
• Objectives
• Investment decisions and appraisal methods
• Investment appraisal techniques
• Discounting methods/discounted cash flow (DCF)
• Applications of project appraisal
• Risk and uncertainty in project appraisal
• Summary
• Unit 4: Financing Decisions
• Introduction
• Objectives
• Financial planning
• Working capital management
• Sources of long-term finanace
• Summary
• Unit 5: Required Return on Investment
• Introduction
• Objectives
• Cost of debt
• Cost of equity (Return required by shareholders)
• Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)
• Required rate of return when equity and debt are combined
• Gearing and company value
• Summary
• Unit 6: Delivering Value
• Introduction
• Objectives
• Total shareholder return (TSR)
• Theories of dividend policy
• Evaluation of the irrelevance argument
• Objections to divided irrelevence
• Divided policy: key determinants
• Share buy-backs
• Summary