Economics for Business Professionals Training Course

Duration 10 days 20 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Finance Managers, Business Unit Managers and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-EE-023

Before you join: Participants should be comfortable reading business reports, working with percentages and interpreting basic financial information such as revenue, costs, profit and cash flow.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Business decisions are exposed to inflation, interest-rate changes, currency movements, demand shifts, labour costs and government policy. Managers need more than headline awareness: they must identify the economic variables affecting revenue, costs, investment cases and customer behaviour, then explain the financial implications clearly. This course gives business professionals a structured way to interpret economic evidence and use it in planning, pricing, budgeting and risk decisions.

Participants study microeconomic and macroeconomic principles through business cases involving banks, manufacturers, retailers, energy providers, public agencies and international firms. They examine supply and demand, elasticity, market structure, consumer choice, production costs, GDP, inflation, unemployment, monetary policy, fiscal policy, exchange rates and trade. The course also introduces practical econometric thinking, including regression interpretation, forecasting error, correlation, causation and scenario analysis.

Teaching combines focused briefings with worked data examples, case analysis, group discussions, spreadsheet-based calculations, policy simulations and individual application planning. From the first week, participants use their own sector, product, market or business unit as a reference point. They build an economic decision file that links market evidence, macroeconomic assumptions, demand analysis, cost drivers, financial implications and recommended management actions.

The course is suited to managers and specialists who use economic information but do not work as full-time economists. It is particularly relevant where teams prepare business cases, forecasts, pricing decisions, investment proposals, market-entry assessments, policy submissions or board papers. Participants receive a certificate of completion after attending the instructor-led 10-day programme, delivered in classrooms in more than 50 cities or live online.

What you will be able to do

  • Interpret macroeconomic indicators for business planning, budgeting and investment decisions
  • Apply supply-and-demand analysis to assess price, volume and market changes
  • Calculate price, income and cross-price elasticity for commercial decisions
  • Evaluate market structures using Porter's Five Forces and concentration measures
  • Assess inflation, interest-rate and exchange-rate effects on financial performance
  • Build scenario-based economic forecasts using assumptions, sensitivities and leading indicators
  • Interpret regression output, correlation and statistical significance for business evidence
  • Present an economic decision file linking data, assumptions, risks and recommendations

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Explain economic conditions confidently in management meetings and board discussions
  • Challenge unsupported market assumptions in budgets, forecasts and business cases
  • Make stronger pricing recommendations using measured customer demand responsiveness
  • Interpret economic commentary without relying solely on external advisers
  • Produce evidence-based recommendations for investment, expansion and risk decisions

For your organisation

  • Improved economic assumptions in annual budgets and rolling forecasts
  • Better pricing decisions through structured demand and elasticity analysis
  • Earlier identification of inflation, rate and currency risks affecting margins
  • More credible investment cases supported by market and macroeconomic evidence
  • Clearer management responses to policy, trade and competitive market changes

Course modules

20 modules over 10 days

Participants can frame a business decision using economic variables, incentives and trade-offs.

  • Scarcity, opportunity cost and marginal analysis in management decisions
  • Distinguishing economic profit from accounting profit in performance reviews
  • Incentives shaping customer, supplier, employee and competitor behaviour
  • Positive and normative statements separated in policy and business debates
  • Production possibility frontiers used to assess resource allocation choices
  • Economic assumptions documented for budgets, business cases and forecasts

Participants can analyse how demand and supply changes affect price, volume and revenue.

  • Demand curves derived from willingness to pay and purchasing constraints
  • Supply curves linked to capacity, input costs and producer incentives
  • Equilibrium price and quantity calculated from market demand schedules
  • Shifts versus movements along curves distinguished using business evidence
  • Shortages, surpluses and rationing effects assessed after price controls
  • Consumer and producer surplus measured for pricing and policy choices

Participants can calculate elasticity measures and apply them to pricing decisions.

  • Price elasticity of demand calculated using midpoint percentage changes
  • Income elasticity used to classify normal, inferior and luxury products
  • Cross-price elasticity identifies substitutes, complements and competitive threats
  • Revenue effects tested for elastic, inelastic and unit-elastic demand
  • Segment-specific elasticity estimated from customer, channel and regional data
  • Pricing actions assessed against volume, margin and customer-retention effects

Participants can use consumer-choice concepts to interpret purchasing decisions and product demand.

  • Budget constraints modelled using income, prices and available alternatives
  • Indifference curves explain trade-offs between product attributes and consumption
  • Diminishing marginal utility linked to product bundles and loyalty offers
  • Reference prices and anchoring assessed in customer price perceptions
  • Loss aversion considered when designing price increases and contract terms
  • Choice architecture reviewed for subscriptions, defaults and product presentation

Participants can analyse production costs, capacity choices and operating scale.

  • Fixed, variable and total costs classified from operating data
  • Average and marginal cost curves interpreted for output decisions
  • Short-run production functions link labour, capital and output
  • Diminishing marginal returns identified through capacity and staffing data
  • Economies of scale assessed for expansion, outsourcing and consolidation
  • Learning curves applied to repetitive production and service delivery

Participants can assess competitive conditions and likely firm behaviour within a market.

  • Perfect competition compared with monopoly, oligopoly and monopolistic competition
  • Porter's Five Forces applied to industry profitability and entry barriers
  • Herfindahl-Hirschman Index calculated from competitor market-share data
  • Price leadership and tacit coordination assessed in concentrated markets
  • Product differentiation examined through quality, branding and switching costs
  • Barriers to entry mapped across regulation, capital and distribution

Participants can evaluate pricing moves by considering competitor responses and strategic interaction.

  • Payoff matrices constructed for pricing, capacity and market-entry choices
  • Dominant strategies identified in two-player competitive decision situations
  • Nash equilibrium interpreted for stable competitor pricing outcomes
  • Prisoner's dilemma explains discounting cycles and coordination incentives
  • Price discrimination assessed across segments, channels and contract terms
  • Two-part tariffs evaluated for membership, usage and service pricing

Participants can interpret national accounts and distinguish headline growth from underlying activity.

  • Gross domestic product measured through expenditure, income and output approaches
  • Nominal and real GDP separated using price deflators
  • GDP per capita interpreted alongside population and productivity changes
  • Business-cycle phases identified from output, employment and spending indicators
  • Leading, coincident and lagging indicators classified for planning use
  • National accounts limitations considered for informal activity and welfare

Participants can assess inflation drivers and quantify their effects on costs, prices and purchasing power.

  • Consumer price indices interpreted by category weights and annual changes
  • Producer price indices used to anticipate input-cost pressure
  • Demand-pull and cost-push inflation distinguished using economic evidence
  • Real wages calculated after adjusting nominal pay for inflation
  • Indexation clauses reviewed for rents, salaries and supplier contracts
  • Inflation scenarios translated into margin, working-capital and pricing effects

Participants can relate labour-market conditions to wage costs, staffing decisions and output.

  • Unemployment rates interpreted with participation and underemployment measures
  • Labour-force participation linked to skills availability and demographic change
  • Phillips curve relationships examined between inflation and unemployment
  • Productivity measures calculated using output per worker and hour
  • Unit labour costs assessed for wage negotiations and competitiveness
  • Skills shortages incorporated into workforce plans and cost forecasts

Participants can explain how money, banking and credit conditions influence business activity.

  • Functions of money linked to transactions, saving and price measurement
  • Commercial bank balance sheets explain deposit creation and lending
  • Credit spreads interpreted as measures of borrower risk
  • Money supply measures compared with credit growth and inflation
  • Yield curves read for market expectations and financing conditions
  • Lending standards assessed for customer demand and investment activity

Participants can assess monetary-policy decisions and their transmission to business financial outcomes.

  • Central bank mandates compared across inflation, employment and exchange-rate objectives
  • Policy rates transmitted through lending, deposit and bond-market rates
  • Open-market operations explained through liquidity and government securities transactions
  • Quantitative easing assessed for borrowing costs and asset prices
  • Real interest rates calculated using nominal rates and inflation
  • Rate scenarios modelled for debt service, demand and capital expenditure

Participants can evaluate fiscal-policy changes affecting demand, taxation and public-sector activity.

  • Government spending and taxation channels traced through aggregate demand
  • Fiscal multipliers compared across consumption, investment and transfer spending
  • Automatic stabilisers identified in tax receipts and benefit payments
  • Budget deficits, debt stocks and debt-service costs interpreted
  • Tax incidence assessed between consumers, producers and employees
  • Public procurement cycles considered in sector demand forecasts

Participants can analyse exchange-rate movements and international trade effects on business performance.

  • Spot and forward exchange rates interpreted from market quotations
  • Appreciation and depreciation effects traced through import and export prices
  • Purchasing power parity assessed using inflation and relative prices
  • Interest rate parity linked to currency forwards and capital flows
  • Balance-of-payments accounts explain trade, income and financial flows
  • Transaction, translation and economic currency exposure distinguished clearly

Participants can assess trade policy and supply-network changes affecting sourcing and market access.

  • Comparative advantage applied to specialisation and sourcing decisions
  • Tariffs, quotas and subsidies assessed for price and volume effects
  • Trade agreements reviewed for rules of origin and market access
  • Global value chains mapped across suppliers, logistics and final markets
  • Terms-of-trade movements linked to import costs and export revenues
  • Geopolitical scenarios incorporated into procurement and market-entry assumptions

Participants can select, interpret and challenge economic data used in business decisions.

  • Official statistics evaluated for definitions, coverage, revisions and release timing
  • Seasonal adjustment distinguished from raw monthly and quarterly movements
  • Index numbers converted into percentage changes and comparable series
  • Base effects identified when interpreting inflation and growth headlines
  • Data visualisations designed for trend, comparison and variance analysis
  • Economic source register records assumptions, dates and evidence limitations

Participants can create transparent economic forecasts using indicators, assumptions and scenario ranges.

  • Baseline forecasts built from historical trends and stated assumptions
  • Moving averages applied to smooth volatile sales and demand series
  • Exponential smoothing compared with simple trend extrapolation methods
  • Leading indicators selected for sector demand and cost forecasts
  • Forecast error measured using mean absolute percentage error
  • Scenario ranges developed for upside, base and downside cases

Participants can interpret basic regression results and identify limits on causal claims.

  • Correlation coefficients interpreted without confusing association and causation
  • Simple linear regression relates an outcome variable to one driver
  • Regression coefficients translated into revenue, volume or cost implications
  • R-squared assessed for explanatory power and model usefulness
  • P-values and confidence intervals interpreted for statistical significance
  • Omitted variables, multicollinearity and reverse causality identified carefully

Participants can incorporate economic uncertainty into management decisions and recommendations.

  • Expected values calculated from probabilities, outcomes and decision alternatives
  • Sensitivity analysis tests assumptions driving forecast and valuation results
  • Decision trees compare staged investments under uncertain market conditions
  • Monte Carlo simulation concepts introduced for variable economic inputs
  • Risk registers connect macroeconomic triggers with management response actions
  • Early-warning indicators assigned thresholds, owners and review frequencies

Participants can build, review and present a complete economic decision file for a business issue.

  • Business question defined with decision owner, scope and time horizon
  • Market evidence assembled from demand, cost, competitor and macroeconomic sources
  • Economic assumptions documented with sources, rationale and uncertainty ranges
  • Elasticity, scenario and financial effects calculated for decision options
  • Recommendations prioritised using commercial impact, feasibility and risk criteria
  • Executive presentation delivers findings, limitations, actions and monitoring measures

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Economic decision file template
  2. Demand and elasticity analysis worksheet
  3. Macroeconomic indicator monitoring dashboard
  4. Scenario forecasting model
  5. Economic data source register
  6. Management recommendation presentation template

Who should attend

  • Finance Managers — assess economic assumptions behind budgets, forecasts and investment cases
  • Business Unit Managers — connect market conditions with revenue, costs and operating decisions
  • Strategy Managers — evaluate industry economics, growth opportunities and competitive pressures
  • Commercial Managers — use demand and elasticity evidence for pricing and sales planning
  • Risk and Treasury Professionals — assess interest-rate, inflation and currency exposures
  • Policy and Public Sector Managers — interpret economic evidence for programme and policy decisions

Skills and tools covered

Economic indicator analysisDemand forecastingPricing economicsMarket structure assessmentMacroeconomic scenario planningRegression interpretation

Tools and standards

Porter's Five Forces, Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, Purchasing Power Parity, Monte Carlo simulation

How the course runs

Training methodology

The programme uses short instructor briefings to establish each economic concept, followed by worked examples using business data and current economic releases. Participants analyse sector cases, calculate demand and cost effects, compare policy scenarios and discuss management responses in small groups. Spreadsheet-based exercises develop confidence with elasticity, index numbers, forecasting and regression output. Simulations examine monetary-policy, pricing and exchange-rate decisions. Each participant progressively applies the methods to a selected business issue, receiving structured peer and instructor feedback before the final presentation.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable reading business reports, working with percentages and interpreting basic financial information such as revenue, costs, profit and cash flow. Experience in management, finance, commercial planning, policy, procurement, operations or strategy is useful because course cases require business judgement. Participants should bring a current business issue, market plan, budget assumption or investment question where possible. Prior study of economics, statistics, calculus or econometrics is not required. The course explains required formulas and statistical concepts before applying them to decisions.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should be comfortable with percentages, basic business reports and financial terms such as revenue, costs and profit. No prior economics, statistics, calculus or econometrics qualification is required.

Bring a laptop for spreadsheet-based work and, where permitted, a current business issue or planning question. Useful examples include a pricing decision, budget assumption, investment proposal, market-entry plan or cost-pressure problem.

The course is designed for finance, commercial, strategy, operations, risk, policy and business-unit professionals who use economic information in decisions. It is not designed as a specialist academic economics programme for professional economists.

Finance courses focus primarily on financial statements, valuation, funding and capital allocation. This course concentrates on the economic forces behind demand, costs, prices, competition, interest rates, inflation, trade and policy.

Participants build an economic decision file around a realistic business issue and use it throughout the programme. The resulting analysis can support budgeting, pricing, investment, procurement, market planning or risk reporting.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The first week establishes microeconomic and macroeconomic analysis, while the second week applies forecasting, econometric interpretation, risk analysis and the final capstone presentation.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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