Strategic Finance for Smaller Businesses

Without a well-crafted financial plan and careful evaluation of financial options, even the most promising business can founder. Focused on the financial challenges facing the small-to-midsize business, this HBS Executive Education program enables both general managers and financial specialists to put their companies on a firm financial foundation and chart a successful course for long-term profitability.

What You Can Expect
In this multifaceted leadership development program, you will take a fresh look at financial management and decision making. By examining a wide range of financial situations common to the smaller business, you will improve your ability to drive your organization's financial strategy and leverage the company's financial position for maximum gain.

Your Course of Study
The program combines core financial management skills with the strategic perspective needed to apply financial methods to major decision points confronting the smaller business. In interactive classroom sessions and small-group exercises, you will explore diverse topics including accounting, performance measurement, capital markets, financial services, information systems design, and venture management.

Who Is Right for the Program
Strategic Finance for Smaller Businesses is intended for top managers and owners of companies with annual sales of three million to several hundred million dollars. Both financial specialists and general managers will benefit from the program's strategic focus and the diverse perspectives provided by participants from a wide range of industries and countries.

Dates and Fees

---

View other financial management and owner-managed programs
 

What You Can Expect

In Strategic Finance for Smaller Businesses, you will explore the range of special financial challenges facing today's small-to-midsize business. Sharing your questions, insights, and learning with a group of talented peers, you will gain the perspective, knowledge, skills, and confidence to take control of your organization's financial strategy.

This HBS Executive Education Program will enhance your capacity to:

• Understand the flow and control of company finances
• Interpret financial data—and use that data to make sound business decisions
• Manage relationships with customers, creditors, silent partners, and other investors
• Calculate the ROI of various business activities
• Assess the impact of financial decisions on both short- and long-term profitability
• Balance profit, growth, and control
• Raise necessary capital while minimizing risk
• Leverage the company's financial position for maximum gain

How Will My Organization Benefit?

Executive Education programs at Harvard Business School are a significant investment for both you and your organization. Going far beyond the basic transmission of skills and theories, each leadership development program provides applicable lessons in the classroom that can be implemented successfully within your organization. You will acquire a fresh perspective on global business from our groundbreaking curriculum, world-renowned faculty, and an accomplished group of elite peers from around the world.

"My time spent at the program was beneficial to both me and my company. It definitely made me a much stronger manager and a better leader, and has given me more confidence and credibility among my peers with regard to financial issues. Given the new skills I have already been able to put to use, I believe the return on my company's investment in my HBS experience will be significant."
Kellie Haines [Chief Operating Officer], Axios Incorporated, U.S.

Your Course of Study

To provide solid financial leadership for smaller businesses, executives need grounding in a diverse range of financial realms including accounting, performance measurement, capital markets, financial services, information systems design, and venture management. This HBS Executive Education program combines interactive classroom sessions with structured and informal small-group activities, giving you the opportunity to explore a set of financial considerations that demand the attention of top management. Topics include:

Overseeing Accounts Receivable and Inventory – When is the right time to say "no" to a customer who is a slow pay? Is it possible to have too fast an inventory turnover?

Managing Relationships with Trade Creditors – What is the real cost of credit from suppliers?

Calculating Ongoing Working Capital – Do greater sales always mean greater investment in accounts receivable and inventory? Are there any economies of scale in the area of working capital?

Determining the Costs and Benefits of Increasing Plant Capacity – How is the real profit of a plant expansion measured? How important is the timing of these payoffs in the profit calculation?

Deciding When to Borrow Money—and How Much – How can the market be timed to get the lowest interest rate? What level of borrowing puts the business in real jeopardy?

Maintaining Control Over Direct Costs and Overhead – Are there economies of scale in the business? How will growth change the break-even point?

Deciding How Much Personal Money to Invest – What is the downside of bringing in a silent partner? Is an IPO always the best solution for obtaining more risk capital?

"This program is ideal for anyone in the organization who is involved in a management position. Whether you're an executive or a manager in finance or operations, you'll find the program to be extremely useful."
Jorge A. Clivillés Díaz [Vice President, Finance], Interlink Group, Inc., San Juan, PR

Who is Right for the Program

The HBS Executive Education Program Strategic Finance for Smaller Businesses is intended for top managers and owners of companies with annual sales of three million to several hundred million dollars. Both financial specialists and general managers will benefit from the program's strategic focus and the diverse perspectives provided by participants from a wide range of industries and countries. Typical titles include:

• Chairman
• Chief financial officer
• Chief operating officer
• Director of operations
• General manager
• President

Visit the admissions section for details about our application process.

Past Participants Represented:

Sales Volume			Nationalities
51%		less than $5 million	3%		Africa
30%		$5–29.9 million	6%		Asia
10%		$30–99.9 million	1%		Australia/NZ
6%		$100–499.9 million	9%		Europe
2%		$500+ million	8%		Latin America
			1%		Middle East
			66%		North America
			6%		Other

"My expectations were very high, considering this was my first experience at HBS. The program gave me the chance to rethink important topics that I am too busy to dig into on a daily basis. It was a real refresher in areas that I had not thought about in years, particularly the discussions on valuations and metrics. As a result, I was able to take the valuation models and build them into my own real-world scenarios. The program met—and exceeded—every expectation I had."
Frank Sansone [Chief Financial Officer], Guidance Software, U.S.

Meet the Program Faculty

Like all Harvard Business School Executive Education programs, Strategic Finance for Smaller Businesses is developed and taught by a core faculty of HBS professors. Our faculty members are widely recognized as skilled educators, groundbreaking researchers, and award-winning authors.

Through publishing, consulting, and teaching, they leverage their business expertise and field-based research to create new knowledge and enduring concepts that shape the practice of management. The result is a teaching team that exposes you to multiple perspectives, challenging your thinking and encouraging new practices that result in superior business leadership. For more detailed biographies, click on each faculty name.