Convergence of Accounting, Finance and Management
From controllership and corporate finance to leadership and strategy, the innovative curriculum is designed around the core competencies essential to the roles of a modern-day finance leader.
Rich knowledge exchange for finance executives
The programme offers a safe and conducive platform for like-minded finance and business professionals to enrich their knowledge, exchange experiences, learn what works and what does not, and understand as well as explore potential solutions to the challenges facing the finance function. The programme offers opportunities for participants to network with finance and business managers in China via the SMU-Tsinghua collaboration.
Outstanding faculty and pedagogy
Delivered through SMU’s hallmark interactive classroom pedagogy, the programme is taught by a multi-disciplinary faculty with strong academic and industry experience, and who are also excellent teachers in the classroom. The programme’s Executive Conversation Series features talks by veteran CFOs and business leaders who will share their wealth of experience with the participants. There is a possibility for participants to obtain guidance and mentorship from CFOs who share their wealth of experience and knowledge.
The programme is intended to be completed in 6 academic sessions over 12 months. Each academic session comprises 8 days of full-time classes, beginning typically from a Friday through the following Saturday (except Sundays and public holidays).
Programme participants take 18 modules, with three modules per session. In addition, veteran CFOs and business leaders will be invited to speak at the programme’s Executive Conversation Series and interact with the participants.
Candidates who do not have any prior demonstrated knowledge in introductory accounting and finance may be guided with relevant preparatory courses before the start of the programme.
The curriculum is anchored on three key pillars of the CFO function in today's modern organisation - Controllership, Corporate Finance, and Leadership and Strategy.
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Controllership
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Corporate Finance
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Leadership and Strategy
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CONTROLLERSHIP
A long-standing and mission-critical role of the CFO Office is to guard, as well as ensure accountability for, the economic resources of the enterprise. Financial reporting, compliance and governance are certainly vital functions in the process of ensuring such accountability, but they must be understood and accomplished in the context of the legal, business and regulatory environment in which the enterprise operates. Effective CFOs must also understand how to balance organisational controls in a way that does not impede the growth and success of the enterprise.
CORPORATE FINANCE
The CFO must also ensure that the economic resources of the enterprise are efficiently utilised and that there is an optimal amount of capital to finance the operations so as to achieve the organisation’s goals. Techniques for assessing efficient performance and optimal capital structure are important, but beyond these, the CFO must also understand how the economy and markets work and behave, the impact corporate financial decisions have on the enterprise, how to manage financial risk, and the integration of finance with strategy.
LEADERSHIP AND STRATEGY
Beyond the reporting and compliance function, the CFO in today’s modern corporation is also seen as a strategic partner to the business. He or she is often a member of the C-suite or executive committee providing inputs, views and guidance to the decision making process of top management, in partnership with the CEO as well as heads of business units and other support functions. Central to this strategic role is an understanding of what different leadership practices mean to the success of organisations, how to manage ethical issues and dilemmas, the role of corporate social responsibility, how to leverage information through technology, how to manage complex relationships with different stakeholders of the organisation, and how enterprises can create, enhance and sustain value.
ACADEMIC SESSION I
Financial Reporting in the IFRS World (Part I)
The rapid pace in which International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) have been introduced or revised in the past decade poses significant compliance challenges for organisations. In this course, participants acquire an in-depth knowledge of the latest IFRSs as well as the standard-setting process and the conceptual framework behind the standards. The recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure of various elements of financial statements, as well as their implications for financial analysis, will be discussed.
Understanding the Global Economy and Financial Markets
This course provides participants with the framework and tools to understand and analyze the state and outlook of global financial markets. The role of monetary policy and exchange rate policy in managing interest rates, and their impacts on the economy, credit and equity markets will be discussed. Linkages to strategies for financial management will be highlighted.
Financing Decisions
This course equips participants with the conceptual and analytical foundations for corporate financial decisions involving capital structure, financing choices, cost of capital, and dividend policy. It also discusses the market for corporate finance and control, including IPOs, seasoned debt and equity offerings, bank loan market, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate restructuring.
ACADEMIC SESSION II
Financial Reporting in the IFRS World (Part II)
This course examines the latest International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) relating to business combinations and group accounting, foreign currency translation and accounting for financial instruments. Participants will also examine judgement issues in the application of IFRS to complex business transactions.
Business Valuation
This course provides participants with a deeper understanding of valuation models used to evaluate investment decisions and determine asset values. Participants will learn techniques used to forecast cash flows and estimate cost of capital and growth rates.
Leadership in Organisations
Organisational leaders need to sustain business growth, manage and motivate associates, and harness passion in the face of adversity. Participants will learn and understand what effective leadership means and how it can be practiced in complex organisational environments. They will benefit from a deeper understanding of leadership broadly defined, including strategies for leading organisational change, leading teams, motivating employees, managing conflict and collaboration, and leading via networks, power, and politics.
ACADEMIC SESSION III
Tax Planning
This course begins with a brief presentation of the workings and basic principles of income tax and GST. It then moves to a discussion of other advanced topics such as limited liability partnerships, limited partnerships, tax incentives, double taxation relief and double taxation agreements, and cross border transactions. Case studies will be used extensively to enable students to understand and apply the knowledge gained to real-life cases.
Legal Issues and Risks in Business
Just as the business world is very complex, the laws affecting business are also very complex. Yet it is critical for the CFO to have a good understanding, and some level of mastery, of the key legal issues and risks in business, so as to help the corporation optimise its rights and minimise its liabilities. The focus is on the fundamentals and the critical concepts and problems. Topics covered include introduction to law (including business model protection), negligence liability, contract law, corporate law (including agency law) and international aspects.
Financial Risk Management
This course examines the concepts and applications of financial risk management. Topics covered include risk management instruments, market and trading (including interest rate and foreign exchange) risks, liquidity risks, operational risks, credit risks and risk reporting.
ACADEMIC SESSION IV
Risk Governance
Through an examination of governance, risk and assurance principles and practices, participants acquire an understanding of the spectrum of risks that can threaten the attainment of organisational objectives. Participants learn about risk governance frameworks to develop appropriate structures, processes and capabilities that are able to respond to strategic, operational, compliance and reporting risks through an enterprise lens.
Ethics and Social Responsibility
Today’s businesses face many ethical issues and dilemmas as well as calls to be socially responsible. In this course, participants debate these issues, consider their own value systems, identify alternatives to resolve ethical dilemmas, and understand what it means and implies for an organisation to be socially responsible. In the process, they prepare themselves to face similar choices that they may encounter in their careers.
Managing Relationships with Stakeholders
The ability to maintain strong relationships with different stakeholders is vital to the effectiveness and success of an organisation. In this course, participants learn how to manage complex relationships with different stakeholders that are typically associated with the office of a CFO, including relationships with the CEO, board directors, external auditors, existing shareholders, potential investors, creditors, financial analysts, regulators and the media.
ACADEMIC SESSION V
Corporate Strategy
Participants learn how companies create long- and short-term strategies, sustain competitive advantage, assess opportunities and risks, and analyse other issues such as cannibalisation and network externalities. The course will also analyse the dynamic forces driving globalisation, how they shape competition, and the critical role of strategy in the success of enterprise operations.
Business Intelligence Analytics
This course deals with how an organisation can leverage information through business intelligence analytics to achieve its goals. Participants learn how to identify the information needs of an organisation as well as information that would drive competitive advantage, evaluate the tool box of technologies and best practices available and how to best harness them, assess returns to IT investments, integrate external stakeholders and execute change management.
ACADEMIC SESSION VI
Managing for Value Creation
Integrating the knowledge acquired from prior courses, participants learn how strategy, culture, accounting information, managerial controls, financial/project decisions, performance evaluation, and management compensation and incentive schemes are linked to the value creation objective of the enterprise. They will also gain an understanding of the drivers of enterprise value, as well as examine how an enterprise can manage its overall operating performance and financial position to create and enhance value for stakeholders.
Strategic Financial Analysis
Integrating the knowledge acquired from prior courses, participants learn how capital markets infer firm value from information, and how in turn corporations should analyse financial alternatives strategically. Topics include capital market reactions to corporate developments; earnings management; management of capital structure, intellectual capital and other economic resources of the enterprise; financial analysis of complex funding alternatives and business acquisitions; and the impact of real options on firm value.
