This course is part of the Finance & Accounting track.
Introduction to Strategic Financial Analysis

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Strategic Financial Analysis

$1,850
Next 8-week session starts February 5th
Explore the intersection of accounting, strategy, and finance, and learn how to evaluate a business’s performance, prospects, and value to make strategic investment decisions that generate financial success.
8
weeks
5-6
hours per week
6
modules
Self-Paced

 This course earns you a Certificate of Completion from HBS Online. What you earn.

Overview
Syllabus
Enrollment
Stories
FAQs

Key Concepts

Forecast financial performance in the near and long term to guide strategic decision-making
Compare organizations’ performance and recognize value and differentiation drivers within industries
Understand what types of financial analysis and valuation methods are most appropriate in different situations
Use financial metrics, ratio analysis, and other tools to assess performance and drive strategic changes
Assess valuation scenarios by identifying and analyzing synergies from a merger and acquisition example

Who Will Benefit

Use financial tools and metrics to inform strategic decision-making and drive business performance.
The program expertly leads you through progressively more complex theories and analysis with a pace that keeps you challenged and engaged.
Lisa Arpey
Executive Board Member at Ford's Theatre
Leverage financial statements and frameworks to assess strategy execution and compare organizations’ performance.
In an ever fast-changing world, it is important to keep abreast with how people around the world tackle finance-related issues and the experiences they go through.
Saad Hashmi
Associate Corporate Relationship Mangaer at HSBC Bank Middle East Limited
Forecast financial success in the near and long term and recognize how companies’ accounting and finance policies impact performance.
The virtual, interactive platform was unique. I was continuously engaged with the course's material and learned a lot from my peers.
Kaushal Khodifad
Senior Systems Engineer at Infosys

What You Earn

Certificate of Completion

Certificate of Completion

Boost your resume with a Certificate of Completion from HBS Online

Earn by: completing this course

Certificate of Specialization

Certificate of Specialization

Prove your mastery of finance and accounting

Earn by: completing any three courses within this subject area to earn a Certificate of Specialization

Syllabus

6 Modules, 40-45 Hours
Download full syllabus

Prerequisite

This is an intermediate-level course that requires participants to have a preliminary understanding of finance and accounting as well as access to and experience with Microsoft Excel.
5-7
hrs
Module 1

Identifying Strategic Drivers of Performance

Explain the relationship between strategy and financial reporting and analyze how accounting captures an organization's strategic decisions.

Highlights

Alan Gould, Managing Director, Loop Capital
The Role of Information in Capital Markets
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Concepts

  1. Introduction to Strategic Financial Analysis
  2. Mapping Strategy into Financial Statements Using Netflix

Featured Exercise

  • Map the connections between strategic decisions and impacts on financial metrics, including amortization changes and capital investments
8-10
hrs
Module 2

Assessing Strategy Execution

Use financial ratio analysis to identify corporate profitability drivers and benchmark company performance.

Highlights

Neal Nathani, Chief Executive Officer/Managing Partner, Totem Point Management
Charis Ji, Analyst, Dodge & Cox
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Concepts

  1. Introduction to Assessing Strategy Execution
  2. Drivers of Profitability: Traditional DuPont
  3. Drivers of Profitability: Modified DuPont
  4. Reflecting Anticipated Strategic Changes in Financial Statements

Featured Exercise

  • Conduct ratio analysis to compare performance across multiple companies
6-8
hrs
Module 3

Introduction to Forecasting

Formulate the forecasting process into distinct steps and forecast corporate performance from condensed balance sheets.

Highlights

The Steps of the Forecasting Process
Yuan Zou, Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School
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Concepts

  1. Role of Forecasts
  2. Forecasting Company Performances
  3. Conducting Financial Statement Forecasts

Featured Exercise

  • Perform a step-by-step financial statement forecast using modified DuPont ratios
8-10
hrs
Module 4

Valuation

Assess the pros and cons of different valuation methods, examine how to apply them in investing, and apply valuation theory and techniques to publicly traded companies’ valuations.

Highlights

Laura Champine, Director of Research/Senior Consumer Analyst, Loop Capital Markets
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Concepts

  1. Introduction to Business Valuation
  2. Mechanics of Valuation: Part I
  3. Mechanics of Valuation: Part II
  4. Analysis of Valuation

Featured Exercises

  • Conduct valuation exercises using different methods, including abnormal earnings and discounted cash flow
  • Use estimated valuation to determine an optimal investment strategy
6-8
hrs
Module 5

Mergers and Acquisitions

Identify potential synergies created by mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and multi-unit businesses, analyze the strategic value of potential M&A opportunities, and understand how to apply valuation in the M&A process.

Highlights

Understanding the Value Created by Synergies
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Concepts

  1. Introduction to Mergers and Acquisitions
  2. Pursuing a Mergers and Acquisition Strategy
  3. Valuing a Target
  4. Closing the Deal

Featured Exercises

  • Value synergies in an M&A scenario
  • Perform a standalone valuation analysis and a valuation analysis with synergies
4-6
hrs
Module 6

Applying Strategic Financial Analysis and Valuation

Explore the motivations behind and value created by business transformations and spinoffs, identify spinoff strategies, and gain insights into managing chief executive officer and chief financial officer relationships with investors and the financial community.

Highlights

Rex Geveden, Chief Executive Officer, BWX Technologies
Robb LeMasters, Senior Vice President/Chief Financial Officer, BWX Technologies
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Concepts

  1. Business Transformation Through Divestiture
  2. Transformation’s Impact on Market Perception
  3. What’s in the Price?

Featured Exercises

  • Conduct a sum-of-the-parts analysis to understand a business spinoff’s viability
  • Analyze the assumptions that justify changes to a company’s share price
Free E-Book

A Manager's Guide to Finance & Accounting

Learn about the difference between finance and accounting, the financial skills all managers need, and how taking an online course can help you achieve your educational goals and accelerate your career.

Our Difference

Strategic Financial Analysis will teach you how to leverage financial insights to drive strategic decision-making.
Stay active by engaging in a new activity every three to five minutes, including opportunities to complete company performance assessments and forecasting and valuation exercises.
Stay active by engaging in a new activity every three to five minutes, including opportunities to complete company performance assessments and forecasting and valuation exercises.
Get social by collaborating and networking with a global community of peers before, during, and after the course. Learners who successfully complete an HBS Online program are added to the HBS Online Community's Official Networking Group and gain exclusive access to events and other networking opportunities.
Get social by collaborating and networking with a global community of peers before, during, and after the course. Learners who successfully complete an HBS Online program are added to the HBS Online Community's Official Networking Group and gain exclusive access to events and other networking opportunities.
Immerse yourself in real-world, case-based examples brought to life by successful business leaders at organizations like Netflix, Intel, and BWX Technologies.
Immerse yourself in real-world, case-based examples brought to life by successful business leaders at organizations like Netflix, Intel, and BWX Technologies.

About the Professor

Suraj Srinivasan
Strategic Financial Analysis

Philip J. Stomberg Professor of Business Administration
"Whether you’re a business decision-maker or corporate advisor, this course will equip you with the tools to formulate, communicate, and drive strategies based on financial factors."

Dates & Eligibility

Starting
Feb
05
8 Weeks  $1,850 + applicable international taxes
Enrollment deadline January 30
View weekly calendar
Enroll Now
  • No documentation required

All learners must be at least 18 years of age, proficient in English, and committed to learning and engaging with fellow participants throughout the course.

Learn about bringing this course to your organization.

Learner Stories

90%
are more self-assured at work
I now feel that I have a broad overview of finance and can approach topics with a strong, integrated framework instead of approaching them in isolation.
Emer Moloney
Research Associate at Harvard Business School European Research Center
HBS Online doesn't teach you knowledge or prescribe to any cookie-cutter solutions to problems. Rather, it teaches you how to think about business problems and arrive at a solution yourself.
Sichao Ni
Commercial Attaché, U.S. Embassy Singapore at U.S. Department of Commerce
* Source: 2022 surveys and course data
 
All FAQs

Strategic Financial Analysis FAQs

Strategic Financial Analysis includes spreadsheet exercises so that learners can practice different types of financial statement analysis, including ratio analysis and forecasting. To complete these exercises, participants should be comfortable writing basic spreadsheet formulas (i.e., formulas that reference multiple cells and use simple math operations, such as addition or division). Since some exercises will require learners to draw on data from multiple financial statements, learners should also be comfortable writing formulas that reference cells from different spreadsheet tabs.

The spreadsheet exercises for this course were created in and designed to be completed in Microsoft Excel. Using a desktop app version of Microsoft Excel (e.g., Microsoft Office Home 2024 or Microsoft 365) on a laptop or desktop computer will likely provide the best experience and functionality for learners. Learners may find it beneficial to use a desktop computer monitor when working on the exercises due to the number of columns and rows in each spreadsheet tab.

Strategic Financial Analysis participants are eligible for a Certificate of Completion from Harvard Business School Online.

Participants are expected to fully complete all coursework in a thoughtful and timely manner. This will mean completing each course module and fully answering questions posed therein by the required deadline. This course also features recommended weekly deadlines to help ensure participants proceed through the course at a similar pace and can take full advantage of social learning opportunities. In addition to module and assignment completion, we expect you to offer feedback on others’ reflections and contribute to conversations on the platform. Participants who fail to complete the course requirements will not receive a certificate and will not be eligible to retake the course.

More detailed information on course requirements will be communicated at the start of the course. No grades are assigned for Strategic Financial Analysis. Participants will either be evaluated as complete or not complete.

You will have access to the materials in every prior module as you progress through the program. Access to course materials and the course platform ends 60 days after the final deadline in the program.

Once you've earned your Certificate of Completion, list it on your resume along with the date of completion:

Harvard Business School Online
Certificate in Strategic Financial Analysis
[Cohort Start Month and Year]

List your certificate on your LinkedIn profile under "Education" with the language from the Credential Verification page:

School: Harvard Business School Online
Dates Attended: [The year you participated in the program]
Degree: Other; Certificate in Strategic Financial Analysis
Field of Study: Leave blank
Grade: "Complete"
Activities and Societies: Leave blank
Description:

Strategic Financial Analysis is an 8-week, 40-hour online certificate program from Harvard Business School. Exploring the intersection of accounting, strategy, and finance, this course teaches business professionals how to evaluate a business’s performance, prospects, and value and leverage those insights to improve their strategic decision-making.

 

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