This short course surveys all the major topics covered in a full semester MBA level finance course, but with a more intuitive approach on a very high conceptual level. The goal here is give you a roadmap and framework for how financial professional make decisions.
Finance for Non-Finance Professionals
Finance for Non-Finance Professionals
This course is part of Business Finance and Data Analysis Fundamentals Specialization
Instructor: James Weston
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Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
4.8
(2,709 reviews)
Beginner level
No prior experience required
Flexible schedule
Approx. 13 hours
Learn at your own pace
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Assessments
10 assignments
Taught in English
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This course is part of the Business Finance and Data Analysis Fundamentals Specialization
When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.
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There are 5 modules in this course
Welcome to Finance for Non-Finance Professionals! In this section you will find general information about the course and instructions on how to navigate the course. For the first week of lectures, we will be covering the basics of financial valuation. We will start with the basics of compounding and discounting rates of return over time. Using these tools we will then move on to valuation using the discounted cash flow method. Along the way, we will demonstrate our valuation tools with a variety of practical examples and compare our analysis with other valuation techniques.
What's included
15 videos3 readings2 assignments1 discussion prompt
Welcome to the second week of Finance for Non-Finance Professionals! In this week of the course, we will build on the basic valuation tools from week one to start making capital budgeting decisions. Our capital budgeting review covers the basic tools like Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return, Payback period, and return on capital. Our discussion of the relative advantages of each different tool leads us into sensitivity analysis and the advantages of spreadsheet modeling.
What's included
11 videos1 reading2 assignments
Welcome back to Finance for Non-Finance Professionals! In our third week together, we will go on a treasure hunt through the financial statements. Using discounted cash flows as our motivation, we search through the income statement and balance sheet for all the uses and sources of cash. Our search leads us to our primary measure of value creation: Free Cash Flow. Free cash flow will form the basis of most financial analysis and this module gives us a roadmap for estimating and forecasting cash creation within any organization.
What's included
10 videos1 reading2 assignments
Welcome back everyone! In our final week together in this course, we switch gears and take an external view of the firm from a Wall Street, or capital markets, perspective. We think about the basic tradeoff between risk and return, how to measure risk, and how to put a risk premium on different kinds of investments. We then take our analysis of risk and return and use it to estimate a firm's cost of capital. Finally, we circle back to free cash flows, capital budgeting and valuation to tie together all four weeks and get ready for our capstone case analysis.
What's included
10 videos2 readings2 assignments
In this final part of the course we bring all of our analysis to bear on a realistic case study. We will evaluate the investment prospects of Sunrise Bakery. As their CFO considers a large capital expenditure, she needs to think about the tradeoff between spending money today and generating more free cash flow in the future. Our job in this case is to forecast the amount of cash generation the new equipment will produce, discount the cash flows, and use all of our capital budgeting tools to make a sound financial recommendation.
What's included
1 video3 readings2 assignments
Instructor
Instructor ratings
4.8 (599 ratings)Offered by
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4.8
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CI
5
Reviewed on May 22, 2023
I come from untraditional background but I find this course is very helpful! The course is very well-structured, allowing me to simply and easily understand finance foundation.
OC
5
Reviewed on Sep 3, 2020
Prof. Weston gives wonderful presentations. Also during the lecture videos you are given some prompt questions that help maintain your focus. Good introduction to the finance world.
GT
5
Reviewed on Oct 4, 2020
Very engaging and effective. Perhaps if stretched over a 13 weeks period or wrapped up in an official master, it would have been even more gratifying. Food for thought?
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Frequently asked questions
Access to lectures and assignments depends on your type of enrollment. If you take a course in audit mode, you will be able to see most course materials for free. To access graded assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience, during or after your audit. If you don't see the audit option:
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