Workshop on Refresh Your Skills - Strategy and Finance for Experienced Directors

This one-day workshop will provide a review and refresh for experienced directors on two perennially important topics - strategy and finance. It will be presented by Dr Simon Haslam, Strategy Consultant, FMR Research Ltd, and by Caroline Kirrane, Chartered Financial Analyst Charterholder.

Session 1: 09:00am – 12:30pm  

Presented by Dr Simon Haslam CDir, this session offers fresh insight relevant to directors interested in strategy.

How to Lead in this Era of Strategy

How to develop effective strategies in complex, multi-stakeholder settings

• Manage conflicting priorities and stakeholder demands.  This can make strategy quite difficult
• Explore the 'wicked' problems approach to provide a route forward through what can be a daunting challenge.

What a good strategy looks like and common pitfalls

• Understand why strategies fail
• Review current research on this topic and test your own strategy.

 
Session 2: 13:30pm – 16:30pm

Presented by Caroline Kirrane CFA, this session is a finance refresher for non-financial directors, in which you will focus on the knowledge required to evaluate your company's performance.

Understanding and Evaluating Financial Performance – A Refresher

Review of the three main financial statements

• Income statement (profit and loss account)
• Balance sheet
• Cash flow statement (including recap on working capital mechanics).

Understanding the four major categories of performance

• Learn how to evaluate them for oversight using ratios; profitability, operations, liquidity and solvency

Case study

• Use tools learned during this session to evaluate profitability, operational capacity, liquidity and solvency of a firm
• Get tips on how to benchmark against peer firms
• Discuss how this feeds into evaluation of risk. 

Workshop material is prepared by presenters and produced by the IoD wholly and exclusively for use by workshop participants. Please note that workshop material is provided in hard copy to all participants. We regret that requests for additional or soft copies of material cannot be accommodated. 

Dr Simon Haslam has over 20 years' experience as a strategy consultant. He is Programme Lead for Strategy at the Institute of Directors. Simon co-owns Glasgow-based FMR Research Ltd, and holds two non-executive director positions. 

He is a Visiting Fellow at Durham University Business School, where he leads the Strategic Management module on the MBA and is a double-finalist in the CMI/Institute of Consulting UK ‘Consultant of the Year’ awards. His clients include award winning public, private and third sector organisations.

His book, Strategic Decision Making, co-written with Dr Ben Shenoy, was published by Kogan Page in 2018.

Caroline Kirrane has over a decade of experience working in financial markets. She has an undergraduate degree in European Business and French from Dublin City University. She also holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Trinity College Dublin, and is a CFA Charterholder.

After completing her undergraduate degree in France, Caroline began her career working in a hedge fund in Paris. She then returned to Dublin, working in US-based proprietary trading firm Susquehanna. She has held positions in Dexia and FinTech start-up Eagle Alpha. She has also worked as an economist with the Central Bank of Ireland, advising senior policy-makers on financial market developments.

IoD workshops may be eligible for CPD, including Chartered Director CPD. Please check with your relevant professional body. IoD workshops are admissible as part of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) CPD scheme and would count towards “Active” learning. Workshops may also be eligible for CPD with Chartered Accountants Ireland, the Law Society of Ireland, the Institute of Banking, the Insurance Institute of Ireland, and the Life Insurance Association. Please check with your relevant professional body or call 01 411 0010 or email training@iodireland.ie for further information.

The workshop cost is €525 ex VAT for IoD members/€575 ex VAT for non-members.

Places can only be confirmed on receipt of full payment. Cancellations will be accepted if received in writing by Thursday, 7th November 2019. However, there will be a 50% cancellation charge. All fees are forfeited thereafter. Workshop fees are non-transferable to other workshops.