Financial Analysis for Management Consultants & Analysts

What is the aim of this course?

During many consulting projects, you will have to do a lot of financial analysis and draw conclusions about a specific company or industry. This is especially true during due diligence projects, strategic projects, and turn-arounds. Financial analyses will help you decide which option is better, what investments you should take, estimate potential improvements, and estimate the impact on the profit and the balance sheet. On top of that, during consulting projects, you have to do everything 3x faster and with little data. Therefore, I will teach you in this course how to do fast and efficiently financial analyses and how to draw conclusions from them

In the course, you will learn the following things:

1. How to do financial analyses in Excel fast and efficiently

2. How to draw conclusions from the analyses

3. How to analyze financial statements in Excel

4. How to use financial indicators

5. How to model a business in Excel

6. How to analyze business units of the firm

7. How to carry out analyses related to M&A

8. How to evaluate a potential investment in Excel

9. How to estimate the value of the firm using simple methods

This course is based on my 15 years of experience as a consultant in top consulting firms and as a Board Member responsible for strategy, performance improvement, and turn-arounds in the biggest firms from the Retail, FMCG, SMG, B2B, and services sectors that I worked for. I have carried out or supervised over 90 different performance improvement projects in different industries that generated a total of 2 billion in additional EBITDA. On the basis of what you will find in this course, I have trained in person over 100 consultants, business analysts, and managers who are now Partners in PE and VC funds, Investment Directors and Business Analysts in PE and VC, Operational Directors, COO, CRO, CEO, Directors in Consulting Companies, Board Members, etc. On top of that, my courses on Udemy were already taken by more than 340 000 students, including people working in EY, McKinsey, Walmart, Booz Allen Hamilton, Adidas, Naspers, Alvarez & Marsal, PwC, Dell, Walgreens, Orange, and many others.

I teach through case studies, so you will have a lot of lectures showing examples of analyses and tools that we use. To every lecture, you will find attached (in additional resources) the Excel files as well as additional presentations and materials shown in the lectures, so as a part of this course, you will also get a library of ready-made analyses that can, with certain modifications, be applied by you or your team in your work.

Why have I decided to create this course?

Analyzing the financial situation of the firm is a fundamental skill in consulting. It helps you understand the current situation of the firm, identify problems, and estimate potential savings. Many Management Consultants and Business Analysts did not finish Business School, and sometimes struggled with some financial analyses. This sometimes puts them at a disadvantage and makes it difficult for them to get promoted. On top of that, many consultants and analysts who studied finance at university/college have forgotten some things.

Therefore, I have decided to create this course that will help students understand or refresh how to do financial analyses in Excel. The course will give you the knowledge and insight into real-life case studies that will make your life during a consulting project much easier. Thanks to this course, you will know how to understand financial data, analyze it, and draw conclusions from it. You will also master the essential information related to valuation.

To sum it up, I believe that if you want to become a world-class Management Consultant or Business Analyst, you have to have a pretty decent understanding of financial analysis. That is why I highly recommend this course to Management Consultants or Business Analysts, especially those who did not finish business school or Economics. The course will help you become an expert in financial analysis at the level of McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and other top consulting firms. That is why, I highly recommend this course to Managers, Management Consultants, and owners/founders of businesses that need better to have a good understanding of the business.

In what way will you benefit from this course?

The course is a practical, step-by-step guide loaded with tons of analyses, tricks, and hints that will significantly improve the speed with which you understand and analyze businesses. There is little theory – mainly examples, a lot of tips from my own experience, as well as other notable examples worth mentioning. Our intention is that, thanks to the course, you will learn:

1. How to do financial analyses in Excel fast and efficiently

2. How to draw conclusions from the analyses

3. How to analyze financial statements in Excel

4. How to use financial indicators

5. How to model a business in Excel

6. How to analyze business units of the firm

7. How to carry out analyses related to M&A

8. How to evaluate a potential investment in Excel

9. How to estimate the value of the firm using simple methods

You can also ask me any questions either through the discussion field or by messaging me directly.

How is the course organized?

The course is currently divided into 8 sections. Currently, you will find the following sections:

• Introduction. We begin with a little intro to the course, as well as some general info on how the course is organized

• General Analysis of Financial Statements. In the second section, I will show you how to analyze 3 main financial statements: cash flows, profit and loss statements, and balance sheets.

• Financial Analysis of Indicators. In this section, I will show you how to use financial indicators and ratios to analyze the situation of the firm, especially in comparison with other firms. We will look at profitability, efficiency, liquidity, and debt ratios.

• Modeling of Profit & Loss statement in practice. In the 4th section, I show you how to model the profit and loss statement of a company in Excel. A business model of the firm that you can use to understand the business, forecast future growth, or for valuation purposes

• Business Units Analysis. In the 5th section, we will discuss the analysis of Business Units. Many firms are running more complicated businesses with plenty of business units that you should analyze separately. We will have a look at 2 examples of such analyses

• Valuation. During consulting projects, especially devoted to M&A or due diligence, you will have to evaluate a specific business. In this section, I will show you examples of how to do it in practice.

• Financial Analyses related to M&A. In this section, I will show you how to analyze the different aspects of M&A. Here, we will see what is better: organic growth or M&A, how to estimate the impact of M&A on the firm, and how to decide whether to sell a business unit or not

• Investment Analyses. In the last section, I will show you how to analyze different investments in the firm. We will look at investments demanded by customers, investments that are supposed to generate savings, and investments in bottlenecks. Different types of investments require different approaches.

You will also be able to download many additional resources

1. Useful frameworks and techniques

2. Selected analyses presented in the course

3. Links to additional presentations, articles, and movies

4. Links to books worth reading

At the end of my course, students will be able to…

• How to conduct fast and efficiently financial analyses during a consulting project in Excel

• How to draw conclusions from financial analyses

• Analyze financial indicators, ratios

• Do an essential firm valuation

• Analyze investments in Excel

• Estimate the impact of the M&A activity

• Create a business model of the firm in Excel

• Analyze business units

Who should take this course? Who should not?

• Management Consultants and Business Analysts

• Managers

• Financial Controllers

• Startup Founders

• Owners of small and mid-sized businesses

• Investment Directors

What will students need to know or do before starting this course?

• Basic or intermediate Excel

• Basic knowledge of economics or finance

• Basic or intermediate knowledge of finance & accounting