Fundamentals of Finance

Course Overview

Understanding the language of finance is critical to sound decision-making in any organisation. It is through rigorous financial management that businesses meet their short-, medium- and long-term business needs. This course introduces students to the basic concepts, principles and tools of finance and teaches both sides of the balance sheet—raising capital and investing capital. Students will learn different types of financial markets, their interworkings and fundamentals of financial decision-making in practice. They will understand financial theory, application of financial models and instruments and core concepts in capital budgeting, investment decisions, firm valuation and risk management. After completion of this course, students will have a solid grasp of the essential concepts in finance, including time value of money and opportunity cost capital, and will be able to value a firm using discounted cash flow analysis.

Cambridge Faculty: Othman Cole, Ph.D.

Dr. Othman Cole is a Senior Faculty in Management Practice (Finance) and the Deputy Director of the Executive MBA at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. Othman’s areas of teaching are in the areas of corporate finance, project finance, mergers & acquisitions, and his areas of research are in the areas of capital structure of companies, behavioural biases, National Oil Companies (NOCs) and International Oil Companies (IOCs), carbon emissions and economic growth. Othman has published a number of peer-reviewed academic articles, book chapters and has presented papers in a number of international conferences.

Learning Outcomes

• Develop a general view of financial markets
• Describe the concept of the time value of money
• Differentiate between and describe the concepts of perpetuity and annuity 
• Analyse the valuation of shares and the determinants of share prices
• Describe how bonds are valued and the concept of yields