Finance and Commercial Skills for Managers in the Telecoms Industry

MODULE 1 – The world of finance and financial data

• Business and telecoms in the 21st century
• The ‘business person’ approach to management
• A demand driven world
• Seeking to add value
• The role of the financial manager

The Business Finance Cycle Applied to the Telecoms Industry

• Sources and characteristics of finance
• Equity debt and capital leverage measurement
• Factors influencing the levels of leverage chosen
• Relating financial risk to operational risk
• The weighted average cost of capital (WACC) as a criteria rate
• Risk and the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)
• Matching finance and investment
• Rewarding investors

The major accounting statements used by telecoms companies – Their contents and layout

• Accounting concepts and the formulation of standards
• Telecoms industry standards
• Capex or Opex?
• The balance sheet – A summarizing picture at a point of time
• Depreciation, Depletion and Amortisation (DD&A)
• The operating statement (profit account) for a period of operation
• Cost and revenue recognition in the world of telecoms
• Accounting for R&D, licensing, JV’s and mergers
• Creating financial reserves and provisions
• Relating the major accounting statements together
• Published accounts and management accounts
• Where can it go wrong?
• International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS’s)

MODULE 2 – Financial analysis-Reading the figures

Comprehensive Financial Analysis Based on a Leading Telecom Company’s Accounts

• What do the City analysts look for?
• An intensive working analysis exercise analysing a telecom company’s published accounts
• Profitability; liquidity; structure; operational performance and Investor’s returns
• Analysing the cash flows
• Checking corporate viability in cash terms
• Absolute v relative measures
• Measuring Economic Value Added (EVA)
• Specialist measures and ratios applied to telecom operations

MODULE 3 – Understanding costs and costing

• Alternative views of costs – absorbed – marginal
• Costing for cost control and costing for decision-making
• A quick look at break-even
• Contribution management – The vital significance of volume
• Case work on contribution and volume analysis

MODULE 4 – Planning and budgeting to exercise control

• Techniques and models for business planning
• The planning role of managers at all levels in the company
• Defining the financial objectives
• Quantifying the funds required for the plan
• Checking the overall viability of the plan and assessing the risks

• What goes wrong with budgeting and why does it?
• Making it work for you and your company
• Things you should never do and things you must always do with budgets
• Is budgeting more about psychology than about finance?
• Forming a Business Profit Plan

This course qualifies for the following CPD programmes:

• Certificate