VideoThe GPU course work ranges from such basics as financial statements and ratio analysis to understanding the drivers of shareholder value. Particularly for nonfinancial managers, cash flow management and investing capital efficiently are foreign concepts, and in group break-out sessions, barriers break down as the finance managers help bring line peers along.
One case study that hits home starts with Woolridge explaining how investors value GPU and how that determines the stock price. He then explores a recent decision not to invest in a major capital project. The group members know the bare-bones outline of the story, but no one has ever looked at the financials to see how the projected returns made the project a no-go. "They get the idea they have to think this way in a competitive world," Woolridge says.
The lessons on the capital markets have also had an unintended consequence. Line managers used to think of finance as the nemesis, arbitrarily putting the kibosh on their projects. Now the managers realize that capital providers are telling finance what they expect.
As for Vodzack, he hangs in the back of the room, and Woolridge sees him smile like the Cheshire cat when engineers start talking about hurdle rates. Vodzack attributes some of Genco's higher profits and lower capital expenditures to the custom program. With the generation unit on the block, he believes that the training makes the unit more attractive to potential buyers.
And there's another reason for hanging around the classroom. "I learn something new with every course," says Vodzack.
Custom Delivery
If the roughly $3 billion that companies spend each year on university-based executive programs, customized offerings now account for 40 percent of that total and are growing far faster than the open-enrollment segment. Custom programs, which infuse the curriculum with company-specific issues and concerns, offer CFOs a chance to drive home the business-partner theme in an intensive fashion.
Since 1994, Johnson & Johnson has put nearly 600 finance professionals through a program developed with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School. Called "Strategic Partnering in Finance," the weeklong sessions teach through case studies how finance can contribute to business success. The cases are tailored by region, and every participant must compose an action plan. "We track the sessions loosely," says training and education director Rich Sample, "but we can tell we're headed in the right direction."
After a year's hiatus, TRW is again running its "Creating Strategic Partnerships" seminar with Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. In 1997, TRW added a second program, with an international flavor. Offered through Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management, the weeklong session emphasizes cross-cultural skills in negotiations and capital-investment options, among other topics. CFO Carl Miller closes the program by asking people to identify three things they'll do differently in their job. A few months later, he checks on their progress.
The Dana Corp. used to send its finance high-potentials through open-enrollment programs at schools like Harvard and Stanford. Then CFO Jack Simpson decided it made more sense to bring the mountain — in this case, the University of Michigan Business School — to Mohammed. But what was supposed to be a custom program run every other year for 20 finance professionals is now run twice a year for 30 people from various functions. Why? The policy committee of Dana's board looked at the program content and worried that line managers wouldn't have a clue what finance was talking about.
Reader Comments» Post a comment