DEBA04 Export Practice & Management

Certified by the Institute of Commercial Management (ICM)

This module aims to provide a foundation of knowledge which is key to successful international trade, including risk, the nature of the global operations industry and its main players, management of information and record keeping, fundamentals of financial management, record keeping including balance sheets and P&L accounts as well as cost assessment, managing cash flow and cash flow forecasting. Price calculation and IT implications and considerations are also covered.

What an Export Business is All About

1. What Does a Business, Any Business, Actually Do?
2. What is Management?
3. Are There Any Such Things as Management Principles?
4. What is Special About an Export Business?
5. A Birds-Eye View of What an Export Business Does
6. So What is the Point of It All?

Companies & Businesses

1. A ‘Business’ or a ‘Company’?
2. Types of UK Businesses
3. The Significant Characteristics of Incorporated Companies
4. National Variations in Financial Reporting
5. The Implications of National Variations

How We Measure Our Progress

1. ‘It Seems Like a Very Good Idea!’
2. Turning a Business Idea into a Business
3. What a Financial Management System Does Not Measure

Organising the Information Flows

1. Management Information & Control
2. Export Activities & Management Records
3. Investment in the Market and in the Distributor
4. Keeping an Eye on the Profitability
5. Keeping an Eye on the Cash
6. The Basis of Longer-Term Planning
7. The Business as a Machine

Management, the Business & the Finance

1. What is a Balance Sheet?
2. The Story of a New Exporter
3. Bookkeeping Without Any Books
4. Some General Points to Consider
5. Working Capital
6. The Alternative Layout of a Balance Sheet

The Trading & Profit & Loss Account

1. The ‘Accounting Period’
2. The Link With the Balance Sheet
3. The ‘Accruals Concept’ - This is Important!
4. Which Figures Do We Include?
5. Which ‘Profit’ Figures Should Management be Interested in?
6. What About Accounting for Value Added Tax?
7. Calculating the Profit (or Loss, as it May Be)
8. What Does the Profit & Loss (& The Balance Sheet) Tell Us?

How We Calculate the Profit

1. How Do the Financial Figures Reach Your Desk?
2. A Matter of Presentation
3. But What Happened to the Cash During the Year?

Thinking About Costs

1. Why We Need to Think About Costs Before Doing the Sums
2. Why Do We Want to Calculate the Costs Anyway?
3. Some Costing Definitions
4. Costs for Routine Pricing & Management Control

The Problem with Absorption Costing

1. Costs for Strategic Planning & For Tactical Pricing
2. The Price Reduction Strategy
3. The Sales Promotion Increase Strategy
4. The Idea of ‘Contribution’ Towards Fixed Costs
5. Accounting for the Costs of Fixed Assets

Cash, & How it Flows In & Out

1. A Reminder About ‘Working Capital’
2. Which is Important, Profits or Cash?
3. The Working Capital Cycle
4. Keeping a Grip on Cash Flows
5. The Cash Flow Statement
6. Analysing & Interpreting the Cash Flow Statement

The ‘Why’ & ‘How’ of Cash Flow Forecasting

1. Cash or Profit - What’s the Difference?
2. Cash, Profits & the ‘Time Value of Money’
3. The Essential Features of Cash Flow Forecasting
4. A Small Service Company & Its Cash
5. The Mill in South East Asia

Cash, Stocks & Working Capital

1. A Manufacturing Explosion
2. Software & Hardware Bargaining
3. The Difference Between Expansion & Just Being Big
4. Spreadsheets & Planning

Prices & Costs

1. A Problem Involving Pricing & Profits
2. Break-Even Volumes
3. The Break-Even Chart
4. Using a Computer Spreadsheet
5. Using Simple Algebra to Calculate Break-Even Volumes
6. Different Ways of Looking at Contribution
7. Developing the Idea of Contribution
8. Incorporating a Profit Target
9. Several Products & Markets
10. Optimising the Volumes & Prices

Coping With the Uncertainties

1. What Do We Mean by Uncertainty or Risk?
2. Quantifying Probabilities
3. The Contract Problem
4. The Successful (?) Distributor Problem, Continued
5. The Exhibition Stand Problem Re-Visited
6. Selecting a Decision Strategy
7. Decision Making in the (Uncertain) Management Context

Information Technology & Exporting

1. The Place of Technology in a Business
2. System Design
3. The System Architecture
4. The Operational Requirements
5. What Do Users Need to Know of the Technology?
6. The Hardware & Software Base
7. Software Specifically for the Export Office
8. Communications & Wide Area Networks
9. Telecommunications, WANs, VANs & EDI