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Industry

Hospitality Leadership Through Learning
Industry

Thinking Like a Financial Manager

Course Cost US$1,198
Number of Hours to Complete Course: 12
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This course is part of an Online Certificate.

Course Focus

Managers face many decisions that require evaluating the cash flows associated with projects. What will be the value of this investment in several years? What is the role of interest in determining the value of this investment? Being able to answer these questions requires a fundamental understanding of the time value of money - how do you move cash flows through time? With this knowledge, you can calculate various payments, such as mortgages and other loans, calculate the value of investments and securities, and make lease vs. buy decisions. As a next step, look at the tools and techniques that can be used when you evaluate decisions and projects on a financial basis. Get intuitive and hands-on training in how to make capital investment decisions. Learners are introduced to a number of capital investment decision rules—rules designed to allow managers to make choices about capital investments, and ensure that the firm maximizes its opportunities to create wealth for its owners. These rules include net present value, internal rate of return, discounted payback period, profitability index, and equivalent annual cost. The appropriateness of each rule for a given project setting, as well as its strengths and weaknesses, is discussed in detail.

Who Should Take this Course?

This course is crucial for managers without a significant financial background who are charged with project planning, purchasing decisions, and planning capital budgeting projects.

Key Benefits

After completing this course, you will be able to--

  1. Apply time-value-of-money (TVM) concepts to discounting, compounding, present values, future values, perpetuities, and annuities.
  2. Use these concepts as building blocks to make capital investment decisions.
  3. Apply the appropriate capital budgeting decision rules to decisions and projects in your own workplace.
  4. Explain the strengths, weaknesses, and uses of each capital budgeting decision rule to others.

Course Topics:

  • Module 1- Intuition and Conceptual Framework
    1. Explaining the importance of the timing of future cash flows
    2. Using a cash-flow timeline to conceptualize TVM problems

  • Module 2 - Basic TVM Tool
    1. Using a financial calculator to solve TVM problems
    2. Calculating the future and present value of a lump-sum payment

  • Module 3 - Advanced TVM Tools
    1. Calculating the value of perpetuities and growing perpetuities
    2. Calculating the future and present value of annuities

  • Module 4 - Conceptual Framework
    1. How value is created in a business
    2. How capital budgeting rules provide a framework for making project investment decisions
    3. Appropriate use of other accounting-based techniques such as return on assets and return on equity

  • Module 5 - Basic Capital Budgeting Decision Rules
    1. Calculation and the appropriate use of net present value (NPV) as a tool in making capital investment decision
    2. Internal rate of return (IRR), its strengths, weaknesses, and appropriate use as a decision rule
    3. Payback periods (PP), its strengths, weaknesses, and appropriate use as a decision rule
    4. Discounted payback periods (DPP), its strengths, weaknesses, and appropriate use as a decision rule
  • Module 6 - Special Cases
    1. Calculation and appropriate use of profitability index (PI) as a decision rule
    2. Calculation and appropriate use of equivalent annual cost (EAC) as a decision rule

Faculty

  • Steven Carvell, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University
  • Scott Gibson, Ph.D., Associate Professor, The College of William & Mary School of Business

Levels 1 2 

Course Format:

We take a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced and are facilitated by an instructor who leads the online discussions and is available to answer specific questions about the course content.

This 12-hour course is comprised of two individual sub-courses which must be taken in sequential order. Each sub-course is designed to be completed within a 2-week period. Following the 2-week instructional period, you will have access to the course content for an additional month. The titles of the sub-courses are 1.) Mastering the Time Value of Money and 2.) Making Capital Investment Decisions. Please choose from the start dates below to begin the first sub-course, “Mastering the Time Value of Money”. An enrollment counselor will choose the next available start date (usually two weeks after the first date) for the second sub-course, “Making Capital Investment Decisions”. Course sessions begin on Wednesdays.
Please choose from the following course start dates:

Course Code: DLP04ME04

Completion of this course qualifies for 1.2 Continuing Education Units (CEUs).

  • 06 January 2010
  • 03 March 2010
  • 17 March 2010
  • 28 April 2010
  • 12 May 2010
  • 23 June 2010
  • 07 July 2010
  • 18 August 2010
  • 01 September 2010
  • 13 October 2010