Finance for Strategic Decision Making Training Course

Duration 10 days 16 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Finance Managers, Business Unit Directors 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-FM-079

Before you join: Participants should have several years of management, commercial, operational, project or finance experience and regular exposure to budgets, business cases, performance reports or investment decisions.

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

Senior managers often receive financial reports but still struggle to turn them into clear strategic choices. Growth proposals, pricing changes, capital projects, restructurings and acquisitions require more than reading profit figures. Decision makers must distinguish accounting profit from cash generation, test assumptions, quantify uncertainty and explain the financial consequences of competing options to boards, investors and operating leaders.

This course develops the financial judgement needed to influence strategic decisions. Participants interpret financial statements, diagnose performance drivers, model revenue, cost, working capital and cash flow, and assess investments using discounted cash flow, net present value, internal rate of return and scenario analysis. They examine capital structure, valuation, value creation, risk-adjusted returns and performance measures. Attention is given to translating finance into decisions on strategy, resource allocation, pricing, market entry, acquisitions and operational improvement.

Instruction combines focused briefings with financial cases, modelling workshops, group analysis, decision simulations and structured peer review. Participants progressively build a strategic finance decision dossier using a realistic business case or a live issue from their own organisation. The final dossier contains financial analysis, forecasts, investment appraisal, sensitivity tests, risk assessment, funding considerations and a board-ready recommendation.

The course suits experienced managers who influence budgets, investments, commercial plans or business-unit performance, as well as finance professionals seeking a stronger role in strategic planning and executive decision support.

What you will be able to do

  • Interpret financial statements to identify profitability, liquidity, efficiency and funding drivers
  • Build integrated profit, cash flow and balance sheet forecasts from operating assumptions
  • Evaluate capital investments using discounted cash flow, NPV, IRR and payback methods
  • Model strategic scenarios using sensitivity analysis, break-even analysis and decision trees
  • Assess business value using enterprise value, free cash flow and valuation multiples
  • Recommend funding and capital allocation choices using cost of capital and risk-return analysis
  • Challenge strategic proposals through financial due diligence, assumption testing and risk analysis
  • Present a board-ready strategic finance decision dossier with clear recommendations

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence challenging financial assumptions in strategic proposals
  • A repeatable method for preparing investment and growth business cases
  • Stronger ability to explain cash, value and risk to senior stakeholders
  • Practical valuation and scenario modelling skills for senior finance roles
  • A board-ready decision dossier demonstrating advanced financial judgement

For your organisation

  • Better capital allocation through consistent investment appraisal and risk testing
  • Earlier identification of cash flow pressures and working capital consequences
  • Clearer financial challenge of growth, pricing and transformation proposals
  • More credible board submissions supported by transparent assumptions and sensitivities
  • Improved alignment between strategic plans, budgets, funding capacity and shareholder value

Course modules

16 modules over 10 days

Participants can connect strategic choices to value, cash, risk and capital requirements.

  • Strategic decisions translated into revenue, margin, cash and capital drivers
  • Value creation tree linking operating metrics to shareholder returns
  • Economic profit compared with accounting profit and reported earnings
  • Corporate objectives reconciled with business-unit financial performance measures
  • Decision rights, approval gates and evidence required for capital allocation
  • Materiality thresholds used to focus executive attention on financial exposures

Participants can diagnose strategic implications from published and management financial statements.

  • Income statement analysis separating volume, price, mix and margin effects
  • Balance sheet drivers affecting liquidity, capacity and financing needs
  • Cash flow statement interpreted through operating, investing and financing movements
  • IFRS revenue recognition effects on reported growth and contract profitability
  • Common-size statements used to compare businesses with different scale
  • Management adjustments distinguishing recurring performance from exceptional items

Participants can use ratios to identify performance drivers and areas requiring action.

  • DuPont analysis decomposing return on equity into operating drivers
  • Liquidity ratios assessed against payment cycles and covenant requirements
  • Working capital ratios linked to receivables, inventory and supplier terms
  • Margin bridge analysis identifying price, volume, mix and cost movements
  • Return on capital employed compared with weighted average cost
  • Peer benchmarking adjusted for accounting policies, scale and business models

Participants can build operating models that convert commercial assumptions into profit forecasts.

  • Driver-based revenue forecast using volumes, prices, retention and conversion
  • Contribution margin analysis separating variable costs from fixed cost commitments
  • Cost-to-serve model assigning activities to customers, products and channels
  • Break-even analysis testing sales volume required to cover fixed costs
  • Operating leverage measured through contribution margin and fixed-cost exposure
  • Price-volume-mix bridge explaining forecast changes against the approved plan

Participants can forecast cash requirements and identify working capital improvement actions.

  • 13-week rolling cash forecast built from receipts, payroll and supplier data
  • Cash conversion cycle calculated from receivables, inventory and payables days
  • Direct and indirect cash flow forecasting methods compared
  • Working capital initiatives assessed for cash release and service consequences
  • Seasonality incorporated into monthly cash and liquidity projections
  • Minimum cash headroom tested against downside trading scenarios

Participants can produce linked financial statements from strategic and operational assumptions.

  • Integrated three-statement model linking profit, balance sheet and cash flow
  • Opening balance sheet validated before building forecast periods
  • Debt schedules calculated using drawdowns, repayments, interest and covenants
  • Capital expenditure schedules connected to depreciation and asset balances
  • Forecast integrity checks using balance sheet and cash reconciliation
  • Management forecast narrative explaining key assumptions and performance drivers

Participants can design financially credible plans with accountable assumptions and control points.

  • Driver-based budgeting replacing unsupported percentage uplift assumptions
  • Rolling forecasts used to refresh outlook beyond the annual budget
  • Zero-based budgeting applied to discretionary spend and support functions
  • Forecast bias identified through prior-period variance and assumption review
  • Planning calendar aligned with strategic milestones and funding decisions
  • Accountability matrix assigning owners to financial drivers and assumptions

Participants can structure a decision dossier that frames a strategic issue financially.

  • Decision statement defining scope, alternatives, constraints and approval required
  • Baseline financial position established from actuals, forecast and approved plan
  • Value-driver map identifying assumptions requiring management challenge
  • Evidence register distinguishing verified data from management estimates
  • Financial model architecture established for the strategic decision dossier
  • Executive narrative aligned with decision criteria and stakeholder concerns

Participants can evaluate capital proposals using cash-based appraisal methods.

  • Relevant cash flows distinguished from sunk costs and accounting charges
  • Net present value calculated using project cash flows and discount rates
  • Internal rate of return interpreted alongside value and reinvestment assumptions
  • Payback period used as a liquidity measure, not value measure
  • Equivalent annual cost compared for assets with unequal operating lives
  • Capital rationing prioritised through NPV, strategic fit and resource constraints

Participants can assess funding choices and apply risk-adjusted discount rates.

  • Weighted average cost of capital calculated from debt and equity
  • Capital asset pricing model used to estimate cost of equity
  • Project-specific risk assessed before adjusting discount rates or cash flows
  • Debt capacity evaluated through interest cover, cash flow and covenants
  • Lease-versus-buy analysis comparing financing, tax and residual value effects
  • Funding options assessed against dilution, control, flexibility and refinancing risk

Participants can quantify uncertainty and identify assumptions that change decisions.

  • Base, upside and downside cases built from explicit operating assumptions
  • Sensitivity tables testing value against price, volume, cost and timing
  • Tornado charts ranking assumptions by impact on net present value
  • Decision trees valuing staged investments and contingent management actions
  • Monte Carlo simulation interpreted through probability distributions and percentiles
  • Break-even probabilities calculated for alternative strategic choices

Participants can estimate business value and explain drivers of valuation change.

  • Enterprise value distinguished from equity value and net debt
  • Discounted cash flow valuation built from free cash flow forecasts
  • Terminal value calculated using perpetuity growth and exit multiples
  • Comparable company multiples adjusted for growth, margins and risk
  • Precedent transaction analysis interpreted with control premiums and timing
  • Economic value added measured against invested capital and capital charge

Participants can compare strategic alternatives using value, cash and resource criteria.

  • Market entry options compared through investment, cash burn and return profiles
  • Pricing decisions assessed using elasticity, contribution and customer profitability
  • Product portfolio matrix linked to capital requirements and cash generation
  • Make-buy analysis incorporating relevant costs, capacity and strategic control
  • Resource allocation ranked using strategic fit, NPV and execution capacity
  • Real options reasoning applied to pilots, expansion rights and abandonment choices

Participants can challenge proposals through structured financial due diligence and risk analysis.

  • Quality of earnings review separating sustainable results from one-off items
  • Due diligence checklist covering revenue, costs, working capital and liabilities
  • Revenue concentration assessed through customer dependence and contract renewal risk
  • Synergy estimates tested for timing, ownership, cost and implementation risk
  • COSO ERM risk assessment linked to financial model assumptions
  • Covenant headroom reviewed under downside cash flow scenarios

Participants can present financial recommendations clearly to senior decision makers.

  • Board paper structure presenting decision, evidence, recommendation and requested approval
  • Executive charts selected to explain trends, variance and decision trade-offs
  • Waterfall charts used to communicate profit and cash movement
  • Assumption disclosure distinguishing controllable drivers from external uncertainties
  • Recommendation wording connecting financial evidence to strategic choices
  • Challenge questions anticipated on value, risk, timing and implementation

Participants can build, review and present a complete strategic finance decision dossier for executive approval.

  • Decision dossier integrates operating forecast, cash plan and investment appraisal
  • Strategic alternatives compared using NPV, risk, funding and execution criteria
  • Sensitivity analysis identifies assumptions requiring executive attention and contingency plans
  • Valuation, capital structure and covenant effects incorporated into recommendations
  • Peer review tests financial logic, evidence quality and decision clarity
  • Executive presentation defends recommendation against board-level challenge

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

What you take back to work

  1. Integrated three-statement financial model template
  2. 13-week rolling cash forecast template
  3. Capital investment appraisal model
  4. Strategic scenario and sensitivity analysis workbook
  5. Financial due diligence checklist
  6. Board-ready strategic finance decision dossier

Who should attend

  • Finance Managers — strengthen their contribution to investment and strategic planning decisions
  • Business Unit Directors — connect operating choices with value, cash and capital consequences
  • Commercial Managers — assess pricing, growth and customer proposals using financial evidence
  • Strategy Managers — test strategic options through valuation, scenarios and return analysis
  • Project Directors — prepare credible business cases for major capital commitments
  • Senior Non-Finance Managers — challenge financial assumptions behind departmental and corporate plans

Skills and tools covered

Strategic financial analysisCash flow forecastingInvestment appraisalBusiness valuationScenario modellingBoard communication

Tools and standards

IFRS, DuPont analysis, COSO ERM, Capital Asset Pricing Model

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish financial methods, followed by cases drawn from capital investment, commercial growth, restructuring and acquisition decisions. Participants interpret reports, build forecast models, test assumptions and compare strategic options in small groups. Simulations require decisions under changing market, cash and funding conditions. Facilitated reviews focus on the quality of financial logic, not just calculations. Throughout the programme, participants apply methods to a decision dossier and receive structured feedback before presenting their final recommendation.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have several years of management, commercial, operational, project or finance experience and regular exposure to budgets, business cases, performance reports or investment decisions. They should be comfortable reading basic income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements, although detailed technical accounting knowledge is not assumed. Familiarity with spreadsheet formulas is helpful because participants work with financial models and forecasts. This is not an introductory bookkeeping course, and no prior qualification in accounting, corporate finance, valuation or economics is required.

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

Participants should understand the basic purpose of income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements. The course does not assume an accounting qualification, but it moves quickly into advanced modelling, valuation and investment decisions.

Bring a laptop with spreadsheet software and, where permitted, a current business case, budget, forecast or strategic proposal. Confidential information can be anonymised before use in discussions and application planning.

It is designed for experienced finance professionals and senior non-finance managers who influence investments, commercial plans, budgets or strategic initiatives. It is less suitable for people seeking introductory bookkeeping or basic accounting instruction.

Financial accounting courses focus mainly on recording, reporting and compliance, while budgeting courses concentrate on planning cycles and cost control. This course uses financial information to compare strategic options, value investments, test uncertainty and prepare executive recommendations.

Participants can use the templates and decision methods for live capital requests, growth plans, pricing proposals, restructurings and funding reviews. The decision dossier provides a structure for converting operational proposals into financially supported recommendations.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The first part builds financial diagnosis, forecasting and planning skills; the later part focuses on investment appraisal, valuation, risk, executive communication and the capstone dossier.

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

Related courses in Financial Management