Improve your confidence in corporate finance

Understand the financial implications of your strategic decisions, interpret corporate financial data with confidence and use financial insight to create value for your organisation.

The Finance for the Boardroom programme is designed for non-financial professionals. It will provide the skills and tools you need to successfully address financial performance, evaluate business plans and use financial strategy to create long-term value.

This programme will not turn you into an accountant, but it will help you develop a deeper understanding of the financial information you use to make strategic decisions. You will learn to analyse financial data, expand your awareness of key corporate finance practices, and build your confidence to engage knowledgably with your finance teams.

The programme brings corporate finance to life with practical and relevant advice that can be implemented in your organisation. Key outcomes include:

  • Develop confidence in corporate financial language, strategies, initiatives and impacts.
  • Evaluate financial performance and data that unlocks new insight to support strategic decision making.
  • Cultivate deeper insight into how your business model translates into the financial numbers.

Programme information – Face-to-face

  • Dates
    • 19 - 21 May 2025
    • 20 - 22 Oct 2025
  • Duration3 days
  • LocationCranfield campus
  • Cost£4,950 + VAT, including accommodation Concessions available

Who should attend

Senior leaders with a non-finance background:

  • C-suite and board level executives
  • Directors and senior managers
  • Heads of department or business unit
  • Partners and senior consultants
  • Senior technical experts

What you will learn

You will gain:

  • Advanced insights into how financial strategy can help drive value in your organisation.
  • A greater ability to make knowledgeable contributions at a senior level through your understanding of financial statements and reports.
  • Insights into the practical implications of investment decisions and acquisitions.
  • Improved confidence in corporate finance with an ability to challenge financial presentations and recognise opportunities.

Your organisation will gain:

  • A senior leader with enhanced financial literacy, able to offer meaningful contributions that encourage better strategic decisions.
  • A more knowledgeable and effective executive with a clear understanding of the organisation's financial performance, and the implications that come with it.

Programme experience

The three-day programme is designed to offer practical and adaptable content to address the real-world challenges you face when interpreting corporate financial data and discussing strategic decision making at a senior level.

You will benefit from the creative practices, diverse ideas, and successful methods that the programme director and your peers on the course have used to overcome challenges in a range of sectors.

You will leave fully equipped with the tools and frameworks needed to successfully improve financial performance and shareholder value in your organisation. The programme delivers best practice models to:

  • Support you in your role and increase your strategic impact.
  • Understand long-term value and how to best achieve it.
  • Recognise the cost of capital and determine appropriate capital structure.
  • Implement investment appraisal techniques.
  • Understand your organisation's valuation methods.
  • Gain advanced insights into what your organisation's accounts really tell you and what they don't disclose.

Programme structure

Day one

  • What is shareholder value and why does it matter.
  • Balancing risk and return.
  • Cost of capital.
  • Seven drivers of value.
  • Linking financial and business strategy.
  • What the accounts tell us.
  • Interpreting the balance sheet and income statement.
  • Ratio analysis.

Day two

  • Commonly used methods of investment appraisal.
  • Making the business case.
  • Common errors in preparing forecasts.

Day three

  • Acquisitions.
  • Additional content led by participants’ circumstances and organisational challenges. For example, initial public offerings (floating a company) or private equity.

Testimonials



Programme Director

Steve Seymour

Concessions

20% discount (tuition fee only) for Cranfield School of Management Alumni who have attended one of our eligible leadership programmes.

Accommodation options and prices

Tuition, course materials and  are included in the price of this course.

How to apply

Next steps

Our team of executive development experts will be happy to talk to you about your development needs, please email us or call +44 (0)1234 754500.

Download brochure

This course is provided by Cranfield Management Development Ltd a wholly owned subsidiary of SWAGºÏ¼¯