'Finance for non Financial Managers' workshops are rather common nowadays so we have tried to incorporate realtime financial data into an e-learning component to show where data comes from in a business and how it can be used to track and improve business in a company generally, but also drilled down into specific directorates and departments.
Technically all seems to be great however I'm concerned that any Financial training can be offputting for some managers, no matter how relevant and hands-on (an necessary). I'd appreciate any advice on making these open sessions more attractive and interesting!
Simon Derry
4 Responses
Make it real
Hi Simon
The two best ways I;ve found of getting the juices flowing in a FFNFM are:
Explain some basic ratio analysis then show how it can be used to double a company’s net worth. Then give them another set of financial statements and let them find the savings, this could be an example or could be their own company annual report.
Run a business game. You can do a simple one and drive them bankrupt at the end through overtrading, or get a good one (BPP have recently developed one which is very good but not cheap, ring Michelle Day in their Bristol office).
Dave
Business Game
Another source of business games for financial appreciation training is http://www.simulations.co.uk/waystouse.htm#link02 This page provides links to several business simulations that are widely used for financial awareness training.
Financial Training
Hi Simon
In addition to the comments below, I recently ran a programme using an online simulation provided by IDCinteract. It was great – it provided a very challenging business sceanrio, in which performance was based around a balanced scorecard, not just profit. It also had the capability to benchmark participants performance in different aspects of the simulation, not just generically but also against the participsnts employers KPI’s. The simulation provided a great deal of insight into the corporate and individual mindset and helped to focus discussions for the remainder of the programme.
Whilst not the cheapest I have come accross it is certainly one of the best. If you want more details please feel free to contact me on 01539568824.
Regards
Bridget
Make Business Sense of Finance
Good Finance for Non-financials are not, I’m afraid, ‘rather common nowadays’. Attempts to make managers and individual contributors into accountants are common, however, and should be avoided like the plague. So should computer simulations where the screen throws up columns of numbers and no-one knows from whence they came. A good board-based game can achieve wonders in a day, particularly when linked with the participants’ own operational results. The good games aren’t cheap – so get the finance director on your side. After all. it’s in his interest that everyone understands the subject!