Increasing market competition forces companies to optimize the attraction of resources and their use, increasing the need for an adequate assessment of the short-term and long-term results of certain management decisions. Modern companies must be able to make increasingly accurate forecasts of rates and prices for resources, understand the dynamics of inflows and outflows of capital, analyze risk factors and the volatility of the results of their activities. This creates a steady demand for specialists with knowledge of modern financial methods and tools.
Financial manager takes part in preparation of company budgeting system, financial modeling and investment projects efficiency evaluation, development of capital attraction schemes and treasury work on current cash flows management. In his work, a financial manager applies both traditional methods of financial work and modern digital technologies (FinTech). The latter include areas such as mobile banking, cloud computing, robotics, big data analytics and artificial intelligence techniques.
The profession is in demand in all sectors of the real economy, in financial and strategic consulting, as well as in corporate finance departments, investment departments of financial sector companies (banks, insurance companies, funds).
Drivers of the profession
- Rising competition on the commodity and financial markets, the globalization of the financial sector
- Dissemination of data analysis technologies based on artificial intelligence and machine learning
- Fast growth of financial data volumes, requiring analysis in short terms
- Accelerated change of financial management tools as a result of globalization and automation.
What tasks will the specialist solve
- Evaluating the efficiency of investment projects
- Optimization of company financing policy
- Justification of strategic transactions for the acquisition of new companies and spin-off of divisions into an independent business, etc.
- Evaluating the efficiency of the company’s market strategy
- An analysis of the financial market and design of the company’s securities for their placement on financial markets
- Establishing a portfolio of securities to be purchased by the company in order to generate income
- organization of control over cash flows
- Building a risk management system
What knowledge and skills he/she will have
- Possession of risk analysis and management methods
- Ability to use methods of valuation of the company and its different components of intellectual capital
- Ability to evaluate the effectiveness of a company’s market strategies and operations in light of its industry profile
- Big Data analysis methods and methods to forecast the company’s business results.
- Mastering of methods of innovative projects evaluation and usage of alternative methods of their financing
- Understanding of the principles of implementing financial innovations, taking into account the peculiarities of the company