Course outline
Finance for Non-Financial Leaders is an intensive short course offering ideas, insights, and lessons from practice to enhance executive and organisational capabilities in the area of financial communication and business partnership.
It equips participants to develop their leadership with an enhanced financial understanding for greater strategic impact, and improved financial communication abilities with both internal and external stakeholders.
Designed around the themes of Financial Management, Communication, Strategy and Leadership we examine technical aspects of finance as well as the ways in which organisations can optimise their communication strategies in a range of circumstances and situations.
Indicative programme outline*
| Organisations and their financial footprints |
We start with the basics of recording financial transactions and then go beyond it by identifying the financial profiles of different organisations.
After this section you will be able to:
- identify the key components of an income statement
- identify the key components of a balance sheet
- understand what the fundamental financial profile of an organisation would be in terms of its financial statement signature
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| Deconstructing financial performance |
- Detailed analysis of financial statements and how financial statements are put together
- Analysing company performance, using financial and other information to make major strategic decisions, exploring the challenges of communicating financial performance to external groups.
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Decision making
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Often decision making involves many people, change of leaders and participants, and ready-made solutions which were not designed for the problem at hand.
Decisions will doubtless be incomplete and imperfect, full of biases and strategic misrepresentations due to various forms of organisational politics.
A critical aspect of leadership is therefore the ability to make wise decisions whilst navigating ambiguity and uncertainty. We will explore the design of two sets of practices that inform decisions in organisations, projects and programmes.
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*Please note the exact timetable may be subject to change.
Format
- Teaching - Three in-person teaching days, you must be available to attend all sessions. You will be supported to participate, interact and network with other professionals.
- Location - King’s Central London Campuses. Participants based outside of the UK are expected to fund their travel to the UK and their hotel expenses.
Please note that all times are local to London, UK. Participants based outside of the UK must ensure they can join the virtual classroom at the published course times.
Terms and Conditions for executive short courses.
Who is this course for?
This course is for professionals in mid to senior level positions in either public or private organisations where your role involves responsibility for organisational and/or financial performance.
The course is designed and targeted at both:
- Those who do not have a financial background but whose careers would benefit from more effective understanding of the financial drivers of organisational success
- Those who do have a finance background but want to leverage their financial expertise for greater organisational and personal career success
Entry requirements
- Relevant professional experience, evidenced through application form.
- 2:1 degree or equivalent desirable.
Course fees
- The full fee for this course is to be confirmed.
- An Early Bird saving of 15% will be available. This saving cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers.
- There is a 25% saving available for this short course for alumni from any King's College London degree programme.
- We are delighted to offer savings for alumni, groups and organisational partners. Contact us to discuss your needs.
Innovative Programme Design
The curriculum of the course is both rigorous and interactive and includes case studies, simulations and real-world projects. Our Finance for Non-Financial Leaders programme offers:
- In depth simulations - Accelerate your learning through a series of role-play exercises designed to stimulate the immediate implementation of new ideas and skills in the area financial communication.
- Ideas & theory - Develop knowledge and ideas from the latest academic thinking, research and teaching at King’s Business School.
- Real-world insight - Learn from the experiences of practitioners who have unique insights developed through the management of finance and organisational strategy.
- Networking - Learn alongside managers and leaders from a broad range of roles, sectors, professions and world regions to bring you new perspectives and ideas.
- Join an executive community - On completion of the programme you will receive a certificate from King’s College London and will remain part of our executive education alumni community, offering you opportunities for continuing development, discounts on future courses and access to our thought leadership and events.
Programme impact
On completion of the course you will have:
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Enhanced decision making at the operational and strategic levels via a greater understanding of the financial implications of management decisions.
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Greater confidence when engaging in financial discussions.
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Increased ability to deconstruct costs, revenue and the drivers of profitability.
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A fuller appreciation of budgeting and project appraisal processes.
This programme to me is important for anyone in a leadership role with financial responsibility and prepares us to better understand the information we are working with. I specifically wanted to add to my Masters and emphasise the business part of my role and the reputation of King’s attracted me to King’s Business School. What bowled me over was the quality of the academics who helped us to work through financial principles and make sense of the decisions made within your organisation. We’ve learned about organisation theory and the whole aspect of finance and how the components come together. Lifelong learning is important to me and I’d recommend the course to anyone who needs to bring together and understand the different components of finance.
Joanne Gajadhar – Divisional Director of Nursing at North Middlesex NHS
Learn from the experts
At King’s Business School, our work fits into themes focused around the biggest problems facing organisations today and our Finance for Non-Financial Leaders programme brings together Academics with a wealth of experience at the intersection of finance, strategy and leadership.
King’s College London is also renowned for working closely with leading practitioners across a range of professions and sectors. For this programme we have drawn on these networks to bring first-hand experience and expertise from the worlds of financial communication.
Over the course of the programme, Crawford will be joined by guest speakers from industry to share their insights and discuss their own practice & leadership experiences.
Crawford Spence is Professor of Accounting
and Co-Director of the FinWork Futures
Research Centre. He is an experienced
researcher and educator across an array of
business disciplines with specific expertise in
financial service professions. Prior to joining
King’s, he was Associate Dean at Warwick
Business School with responsibility for
the School’s academic programmes at its
London Shard campus.