Essentials Of Corporate Finance
The financial fundamentals every non-finance executive needs to read, question and act on the numbers, investment appraisal, capital structure and financial performance.
5 Days
Programme overview
Corporate finance decisions, which investments to fund, how to finance them, how much working capital to hold, are made throughout an organisation, not only inside the finance function. Yet the managers making those calls do not always have a structured grounding in the financial logic behind them.
Essentials Of Corporate Finance gives participants that grounding directly and practically: the time value of money and the investment-appraisal techniques built on it, how organisations decide between debt and equity financing, how working capital and financial risk are managed, and how financial performance is ultimately measured. The programme deliberately stays focused on the essentials rather than expanding into specialist technique, so it remains accessible to managers without a finance background while still being rigorous enough for finance professionals seeking a structured refresher.
Why this programme matters
Every significant business decision is, at its core, a corporate finance decision, it commits capital, creates or reduces risk, and is ultimately judged against a financial return. Managers who understand the logic of investment appraisal, financing choice and capital structure make stronger business cases, ask sharper questions of the proposals put in front of them, and are far more credible when their own recommendations are put to the same scrutiny.
Learning objectives
- Explain the core principles of corporate finance and financial decision-making.
- Apply time-value-of-money concepts to investment decisions.
- Evaluate investment opportunities using NPV, IRR and payback.
- Understand how cost of capital shapes investment appraisal.
- Evaluate financing decisions and their impact on capital structure.
- Understand working capital management and its effect on financial performance.
- Identify and assess financial risk.
- Connect financial decisions to shareholder and organisational value.
Key programme highlights
- Corporate finance fundamentals and the financial decision-making framework
- Time value of money as the foundation of investment appraisal
- Capital budgeting techniques: NPV, IRR and payback
- Cost of capital and its role in investment decisions
- Financing decisions and capital structure
- Working capital management
- Financial risk and its management
- Measuring financial performance and shareholder value
Training methodology
The programme combines facilitator-led instruction with worked investment-appraisal calculations, case-based discussion of real financing and capital-structure decisions, and practical exercises applying each technique to realistic business scenarios.
Who should attend
- Managers without a formal finance background
- Business Unit and Department Heads
- Project and Programme Managers
- Business Analysts
- Finance Professionals seeking a structured refresher
- Professionals preparing for broader commercial responsibility
Organisational impact
- Stronger, better-substantiated investment proposals across the organisation
- More disciplined evaluation of financing options
- Improved working-capital discipline
- Greater shared financial vocabulary between finance and operational teams
- More credible business cases reaching senior decision-makers
Personal impact
- A practical grounding in investment-appraisal technique
- Confidence evaluating financing and capital-structure decisions
- Improved ability to build and defend a financial business case
- Stronger understanding of how personal and departmental decisions affect financial performance
- A transferable corporate-finance vocabulary for cross-functional conversations
Course outline
Related programmes
Financial Accounting & Reporting
Core financial accounting and reporting practice, reading, interpreting and using financial statements for management decision-making.
Budgeting, Planning & Management Reporting
Building budgets, forecasts and management reports that decision-makers can actually trust, from budget preparation through variance analysis and reporting.
Cost Planning, Control & Optimization
Structured approaches to planning, controlling and optimising organisational cost, from cost classification through investment appraisal and cost optimisation.
Considering this for your organisation?
Talk to our corporate learning team about delivering this programme, or a bespoke variant of it, for your team.