Financial decisions impact every area of an organization. Even non-finance executives are often called upon to make financial decisions on certain issues. Therefore, having a good knowledge of the key concepts of prudent financial management becomes necessary for executives to achieve business objectives of modern organizations.

This workshop aims to help participants in familiarizing with essential financial information, showing them how to "speak the language of numbers" and implement financial data in their daily business decisions. The use of financial ratios, budget control, as well as project evaluation techniques will also be covered and discussed.

Workshop Outline:

• Why finance matters
• The key building blocks of financial control
• Cost and management accounting
• Understanding and interpretation of financial statements
• Company analysis via analytical tools and ratios
• Introduction to internal control
• Evaluating the worth of a project
• Managing a profit center or cost center
• Absorption, marginal and activity-based costing
• The unique features of project costing
• Estimating project duration and future cost
• Anticipating problems using cost control
• Making estimates based on incomplete information
• Choosing projects that optimize profit
• Return on Investment (ROI) and Payback Period
• Discounted cash flow (DCF), Present Value (PV)

Workshop Details:
Date: September 17, 2009 (Thursday)

Time: 9:30am - 5:00pm
Medium: Cantonese with English Handout
Fee: HK$1,100 (Regular), HK$1,000 (Before Sep 4, 2009)
Remarks: Group Discount Available. Please call 3627 3673 for details.

Who Should Attend:
Line Managers and Executives in non-finance functions.

Speaker: Mr. Peter Cheng, CPA

Mr. Cheng is a Certified Public Accountant (Practicing) of Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and a member of The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. He had worked in one of the international accounting firms, Peat Marwick and Mitchell (now KPMG) for over seventeen years. In 1992, he joined a listed corporation in Hong Kong to review and monitor investment projects. Mr. Cheng possesses more than 20 years experience in corporate restructuring, auditing, tax issues, financial advisory services, including financial and commercial due diligence. Mr. Cheng is frequently invited by commercial and charitable organizations to give talks on financial management, cost control, performance evaluation and related topics.

To register for this workshop, please click HERE.

 

To learn more on how HMI can help your company to enhance performance, please email to info@hmi.hk

 

Economic Overview

Hong Kong’s jobless rate rose to its highest in almost four years last month, and the government warns it will continue rising as students graduate start looking for work. The unemployment rate for the April to June quarter was 5.4%, up from 5.3% in the March to May period. A total of 203,000 people were out of work in the period, up 3,300. The number in work fell 8,700, to 3.51 million. Unemployment remains highest in the construction sector, at 11.8%, though that is better than the 12.1% in the March to May period and the 12.7% seen from February to April. [Source: SCMP (A3)/ The Standard (P11)/ HKEJ (P8)/ HKET (A6), 21 July 09].

Moreover, the consumer prices dropped 0.9% last month compared with a year ago, the first year-on-year decline since January 2005, the Census and Statistics Department said. Netting out the effects of one-off government relief measures, last month’s Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% - compared with 1.3% in May. Among the various components of the CPI, the cost of electricity, gas and water recorded the greatest year-on-year decline, of 42.5%, due to the electricity subsidies. Alcohol and tobacco prices increased most, by 22.5%, followed by rents, by 3.7%. A government spokesman said consumer prices remained on an easing trend, as local wages and rentals continued to adjust to the economic downturn. Economists say Hong Kong has entered a deflationary cycle. The price decreases would be mild or near zero, at least until the end of this year, before the world economy recovered. [Source: SCMP (A2)/ The Standard (P11)/ HKEJ (P1)/ HKET (A22), 22 Jul 09].
 

Meanwhile, 28% of about 540 companies expect their business to worsen in the third quarter as compared with 47% and 59% respectively in Q2 2009 and Q1 2009, according to the latest Quarterly Business Tendency Survey released by the Census and Statistics Department. The impact brought about by the financial tsunami remains a concern for most respondents who expect their business situation to be worse. Analyzed by sector, the accommodation and food services sector (mainly referring to the hotels and restaurants industries) continues to have the most unfavourable business outlook.  On the other hand, discernible improvements are expected for the business situation in the information and communications, and financing and insurance sectors.  [Source: SCMP (A2)/ HKEJ (P2), 25 Jul 09].

The following summarized the recent actions taken by different organizations

• Lloyds to axe 1,200 insurance, IT jobs. [Source: China Daily (P17), 17 July 2009].
• Siemens to shed 1,400 more. [Source: The Standard (P13), 23 Jul 2009].
• Verizon to cut 8,000 jobs as profit dips. [Source: Channelnewsasia.com, 28 Jul 09].

Disclaimer: Should there be any different views in the interpretation, please always refer to the original media source as reference. HMI Consulting accepts no liability in respect of the accuracy and truthfulness of the materials included in this newsletter.