After decades of low inflation, prices spiked in the 2020s. Inflation was back, but a generation of managers had little experience with it. That lack of experience caused companies to make mistakes when inflation started its fast ascent. Financial leaders need to relearn the skills and insights that guided companies through the high inflation of the 1970s and 1980s.

This course is broken into two sections. The first section will cover some key concepts about inflation. You'll learn:

• What is inflation?
• The Federal Reserve's role in managing inflation
• The indexes used to measure inflation
• How to calculate inflation
• A historical look at inflation and its causes
• The advantages and disadvantages of inflation
• Consumer reactions to inflation

The second section builds on these concepts to provide implications for company financial management. I'll explain:

• How to prepare for inflation
• The importance of cash management
• Ways to earn more income and protect your cash during inflation
• Pricing tactics and strategies
• Inflation implications for capital expenditures
• Tips and ideas for many aspects of company financial management

Business environmental monitoring gathers internal and external data that could affect a company. Business leaders and financial analysts can examine that data to identify implications for their company and develop strategies for those implications. These strategies often mitigate threats or capture opportunities. Companies that better understand their business environment can anticipate and plan for changes, build more accurate financial projections, and allocate resources more effectively.

This course focuses on Finance's role in environmental analysis. You'll learn the types of data that should be monitored by Finance.  The course then explains popular models for analyzing that data.

You'll learn:

• The steps in the environmental monitoring cycle
• The basics and uses of common-size analysis in environmental monitoring
• What to analyze: both internal and external, and from the industry level to the customer level
• Sources of financial business environment information
• Models to organize and synthesize environmental information for planning and decision-making

This course is useful for business leaders and financial staff who are involved in any of these processes:

• Strategic planning
• Budgeting, financial projects, and financial modeling
• Identifying best practices and benchmarks
• Product and customer profitability analysis
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Tax planning
• Setting owners' distributions or dividends

Companies get into trouble in the good times. However, that doesn't mean that they fail during good economic times. Rather, they make decisions that cause them financial stress when a recession hits. This course gives you financial management ideas for what to do before and during a recession.

The course begins by explaining who determines when a recession has occurred in the United States and the criteria they use to make that determination. I'll then list some challenges businesses face during a recession. Specifically, I'll show how companies get trapped with high costs and cash outflows during a recession.

In the last half of the course, we’ll look at many financial management ideas you can implement before and during a recession to improve your company's ability to survive and thrive. Finally, we'll look at some opportunities businesses have during recessions to improve profitability when good economic times return.

For much of my career, I was part of the senior leadership at banks and a large credit union. I've sat through many special asset meetings, which is the euphemism banks use for meetings about bad loans and repossessed assets. The collections department reported to me at one financial institution. I've seen many of the financial mistakes companies make. It truly saddened me. My hope is that this course gives you ideas to help businesses make fewer and less costly mistakes.

After decades of low inflation, prices spiked in the 2020s. Inflation was back, but a generation of managers had little experience with it. That lack of experience caused companies to make mistakes when inflation started its fast ascent. Financial leaders need to relearn the skills and insights that guided companies through the high inflation of the 1970s and 1980s.

This course is broken into two sections. The first section will cover some key concepts about inflation. You'll learn:

• What is inflation?
• The Federal Reserve's role in managing inflation
• The indexes used to measure inflation
• How to calculate inflation
• A historical look at inflation and its causes
• The advantages and disadvantages of inflation
• Consumer reactions to inflation

The second section builds on these concepts to provide implications for company financial management. I'll explain:

• How to prepare for inflation
• The importance of cash management
• Ways to earn more income and protect your cash during inflation
• Pricing tactics and strategies
• Inflation implications for capital expenditures
• Tips and ideas for many aspects of company financial management

Business environmental monitoring gathers internal and external data that could affect a company. Business leaders and financial analysts can examine that data to identify implications for their company and develop strategies for those implications. These strategies often mitigate threats or capture opportunities. Companies that better understand their business environment can anticipate and plan for changes, build more accurate financial projections, and allocate resources more effectively.

This course focuses on Finance's role in environmental analysis. You'll learn the types of data that should be monitored by Finance.  The course then explains popular models for analyzing that data.

You'll learn:

• The steps in the environmental monitoring cycle
• The basics and uses of common-size analysis in environmental monitoring
• What to analyze: both internal and external, and from the industry level to the customer level
• Sources of financial business environment information
• Models to organize and synthesize environmental information for planning and decision-making

This course is useful for business leaders and financial staff who are involved in any of these processes:

• Strategic planning
• Budgeting, financial projects, and financial modeling
• Identifying best practices and benchmarks
• Product and customer profitability analysis
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Tax planning
• Setting owners' distributions or dividends

Companies get into trouble in the good times. However, that doesn't mean that they fail during good economic times. Rather, they make decisions that cause them financial stress when a recession hits. This course gives you financial management ideas for what to do before and during a recession.

The course begins by explaining who determines when a recession has occurred in the United States and the criteria they use to make that determination. I'll then list some challenges businesses face during a recession. Specifically, I'll show how companies get trapped with high costs and cash outflows during a recession.

In the last half of the course, we’ll look at many financial management ideas you can implement before and during a recession to improve your company's ability to survive and thrive. Finally, we'll look at some opportunities businesses have during recessions to improve profitability when good economic times return.

For much of my career, I was part of the senior leadership at banks and a large credit union. I've sat through many special asset meetings, which is the euphemism banks use for meetings about bad loans and repossessed assets. The collections department reported to me at one financial institution. I've seen many of the financial mistakes companies make. It truly saddened me. My hope is that this course gives you ideas to help businesses make fewer and less costly mistakes.