William R. Kay, MBA, is an adjunct Professor for the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC), Bloch School of Management, and owner of W. Kay & Associates is dedicated to helping organizations and individuals enhance their competitiveness, productivity, and technological performance.

For the past 28 years, Mr. Kay has specialized in assisting businesses in the quest to improve performance in the areas of strategic planning, finance and accounting, project management, marketing, sales and sales management, and team building following the accelerated learning model for adult learning.

Mr. Kay’s professional experience includes over 20 years as CEO and owner of a major company and, for the past 28 years helping major Fortune 500 companies and Universities with organizational development and training.

Nathan Mauck, Ph.D. is a Professor of Finance at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Mauck received his Ph.D. in Finance from Florida State University and his undergraduate degree in Finance from Kansas State University. Mauck teaches at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels. He has won numerous teaching awards including: the 2014 Bloch Favorite Faculty Award, the 2015 UMKC Chancellor’s Early Career Award for Excellence in Teaching, the 2015 and 2017 Bloch School’s Elmer F. Pierson Good Teaching Award, the 2017 Robert L. Virgil, Jr. Ph.D. Excellence in Teaching Award, and the 2018 and 2019 Bloch Graduate Faculty Impact Award. Nathan has specialized his research and teaching in the areas of corporate finance, international finance, financial modeling, firm valuation, mergers and acquisitions, and venture financing. He has over 30 peer-reviewed academic publications and his work has been featured in popular press publications such as The Wall Street Journal.

What You Will Learn
In this workshop you will gain an understanding of the accounting process, from recording the dollar impact of business decisions to the preparation of the resulting financial reports.

You will come away with the ability to converse with the finance people intelligently and grasp the all-important numbers side of business.

This workshop will help you become familiar with common accounting concepts and buzzwords used by accounting insiders. You’ll develop a baseline of financial understanding and clear up any confusion between different kinds of financial statements and identify their purpose and relation to each other.

Key Topics

• Accounting equation and the relationship among its components
• The basic accounting principles
• The accounting process: journals and ledgers
• How debits and credits work
• How various business transactions affect financial statements
• Cash accounting versus accrual basis accounting
• The difference between accounting profit and cash flow
• Retained Earnings is the bridge between the Income Statement and the Balance Sheet
• Apply accounting conventions and guidelines
• The purpose of and terminology associated with the key financial statements:
  • Income Statement or Profit and Loss Statement (P&L)
  • Balance Sheet
  • Statement of Retained Earnings
  • Cash Flow Statement

Who Should Attend
This program is designed for both new managers of all backgrounds and established managers with non-finance backgrounds in every functional area of responsibility and in all industries.

What You Will Learn
This workshop covers the financial skills that are fundamental for any managerial position. You’ll learn how to think finance and get a firm grasp of the numbers side of business.

From accruals to write-offs, receivables and payables, this workshop covers the concepts, tools, and techniques that can help make decisions pay off both on the job and on the bottom line.

You will gain a greater confidence and a working knowledge of the key business financials statements. Learn how to “think finance” and translate performance in financial terms.

Key Topics

• The key Financial Statements and how they tie together
• Key Finance Terms: Assets, Liabilities, Capital, Depreciation, Current Ratio and others
• Master the mind-set: see business in terms of dollars-and-cents decision options that pay off, short and long-term
• Develop working rules regarding your corporate financial statements
• Use the balance sheet to examine assets and liabilities
• Analyze the income statement to assess revenues and expenses
• The statement of cash flow: sources and uses of funds
• Content and format of the annual report
• Understand the footnotes
• Debt vs. Equity financing
• How leverage can increase return to shareholders
• Use profit-planning tools, break-even analysis, financial forecasting
• Importance of Cash Flow: where cash comes from and how it’s applied
• Criteria for examining the performance of divisions and product lines
• Understand the cost of capital

Who Should Attend
This program is designed for non-financial managers in every functional area of responsibility in all industries.

What You Will Learn
Being responsible for the budgeting means you’re playing a vital role in your organization’s future. Your budget enables you to pinpoint critical variables that impact profit, so your company can successfully pursue business goals and create value.

In this workshop, you will learn how to work with, develop and present budgets aligned with business strategic goals. Working in groups, you’ll gather the information you need to construct and analyze operating budgets. You’ll practice evaluating and revising your budget to increase its chances of acceptance. This is your opportunity to gain the tools and insights to craft the budget your company needs to overcome obstacles and achieve success.

Key Topics

• Overview of the planning and budgeting process
• Accurately develop an operating budget based on forecasted sales, revenues, and costs
• Work with a well-planned budget that clearly highlights crucial variables that impact profit
• Know the line items on the income statement, their metrics and interdependencies
• Define variances so you can quickly implement changes to meet your company’s financial objectives
• Develop and present a well-thought-out budget that will get buy-in
• Keep your plan on target with budgetary controls
• Understand the definition, purpose, and components of a budget
• Operating budget vs. capital budget
• Address issues and challenges when dealing with assumptions and targets
• Revise and finalize the budget
• Organize and deliver your operating budget for feedback and final approval
• Obtain tips, guidelines, and recommendations for developing and presenting your budget
• Perform a variance analysis and identify potential sources and causes
• Know exactly which variances to address to plan for next year’s budget

Who Should Attend
Managers and anyone with budget responsibilities who are interested in developing or improving their budget planning skills.

What You Will Learn
Ideas that require firm resources also require evidence that benefits outweigh the costs. In this workshop, you will learn and apply best practices for making a business case for projects and strategies.

This workshop will utilize real-world cases to provide you with the opportunity to apply key communication strategies to move your ideas forward. This is an opportunity to develop your ability to interact with internal and external audiences with a focus on financial implications of strategic decisions.

Key Topics

• Understand “CFO speak” including terminology and financial performance metrics related to:
  • Profitability
  • Growth
  • Impact of project financing
  • Risk
  • Cost and benefits
  • Creating shareholder or owner value
• Convert functional area jargon into the language of finance
• The role of financial projections in decision making
• Using your business case to influence others
• Identifying drivers of success and risk
• Financial models that support the business case
• Conducting sensitivity analysis and what-if analysis
• Demonstrating alignment of strategic and financial goals
• Anticipating and dealing with pushback
• Presenting key decision points in concise manner

Who Should Attend
Managers of all backgrounds who seek improved skills to articulate financial goals and describe performance to non-financial audiences. Managers with a non-finance background who want to learn finance jargon and “CFO speak.”

What You Will Learn
One of the big challenges in business is dealing with uncertainty. In this workshop, we’ll discuss the basic framework for how to make financially solid decisions that minimize risk and maximize return. The focus of this workshop is on managing for value.

Real-world case studies will provide the opportunity to evaluate the financial implications of strategic decisions. You will practice framing an issue and then applying financial logic to make sound recommendations.

Key Topics

• Establish how investors and the market view value creation
• Overview of the capital budgeting process
• Estimate cash flows and cost of capital
• Understand key investment criteria
• Key financial performance measures: net present value, internal rate of return, return on equity, return on assets, and return on investment
• Apply decision making framework to “go or no-go” scenarios
• Learn how to manage payout policy
• Decide between capital structure alternatives
• Understand drivers of merger and acquisition success

Who Should Attend
This course is appropriate for managers of all backgrounds seeking coverage of advanced topics. Managers with a non-finance background may find that this course is best following our “Basic Accounting” and/or “Using and Understanding Financial Statements” courses.

What You Will Learn
Managers often reference “creating value” for their firms, owners or shareholders. But how do we really create and measure value? This course focuses on the drivers of value creation.

A blend of lecture and hands-on applied case studies will be used develop practical strategies to add value to your business. You will have the opportunity to identify the value consequences of strategic decisions.

Key Topics

• Define firm value from the perspective of owners and shareholders
• Understand common valuation techniques
• Apply a high-level discounted cash flow model to a real firm
• Valuation multiples
• Discount rates and cost of capital
• Use real firms and cases to identify key drivers of value including:
  • Sustainable competitive advantage
  • Organic and inorganic growth
  • Cost control
  • Risk reduction
  • Cash flow generation
• Apply valuation techniques to identify financial consequences of decision making
• Valuation in the context of mergers and acquisitions
• Establish the link between strategic initiatives and value

Who Should Attend
This course is appropriate for managers of all backgrounds with an interest in how value is created. Managers with a non-finance background may find that this course is best following our “Basic Accounting” and/or “Using and Understanding Financial Statements” courses.