financedq101.docxIn your responses, either provide constructive critiques of others’ postings, or illustrate others’ postings with your own professional experiences.
Student 1:
What are the 5-10 most useful takeaways you have learned in this course?
· The importance of cost analysis and developing assumptions that are based on industry statistics in the development of a business plan for the expansion, purchase, lease or any other corporate expense requiring approval.
· Gaining an understanding of present value in the discount cash flow analysis which is used to determine the actual value of the saving vs. ROI when supporting the investment value of a project.
· Forecasting and understanding the impact of an investment vs. status quo and how having clearly supported assumptions in developing the investment forecast and using corporate forecasting is critical in visualizing when a project will be profitable, how profitable, and really comparing it to the current business expectations.
· Understanding the effects foreign currency has on business proposals and financials
Risk identification as a critical element in identifying and either eliminating or mitigating the risk. How will you apply what you have learned in this course to the Marketing and Strategy Business Plan that you’ve been developing throughout your MBA studies?
Utilizing the information that I have gained in this course, I can determine if the company I am researching is in a sound financial position to continue its expansion of new product lines. Capital investments not only take into account real estate, but also equipment. With my company, we are expanding our product line and will need to invest in manufacturing equipment to ensure that the product line is successful. By using the risk identification, I can determine the risks that are in the manufacturing and aerospace environment and determine possible scenarios to help mitigate them.
How might you apply what you learned in this course to your future professional work?
This course has added another layer of knowledge to my MBA work. It will help me as I analyze capital acquisition projects to determine if ROI is properly calculated and if all alternative and possible scenarios have been evaluated.
Student 2:
The most useful takeaways I have learned in this course is to analyze, analyze, then analyze your analytics. With all joking aside, I have learned the importance of analyzing the time value of money (sometimes it might be better to rent than buy); analyze your data (how reliable is it and are you taking into account non-financial factors such as global politics); analyze both historic and projected values and give different scenarios (best case, worst case, and likely case); and analyze how to approach and deliver hard data (back it up with facts).
I have also learned, outside of the course, how to stay focused on your goal when there is a huge shift in your life. The global pandemic and the shift to the new norm, while taking care of life's responsibilities has been extremely stressful. As I can imagine for the rest of my fellow students. It was difficult to focus on the task at hand but I have learned to adapt. I want to take this time to applaud everyone else who has shown a great work ethic and ability to get through this course while getting through scary times.
Analytics is crucial in what ever you do. I will use the ratios I have learned and the importance of the time value of money to make my argument going forward. I feel that after this course I have a broader idea on how to analyze different scenarios.
Learning the tools of financial analysis can easily convert into data analysis. Which ever road I choose to go into in my professional career, be it a financial manager or a program manager, I know that my analytics will help me to see a better picture.
