Commercial Awareness Training

This Commercial Awareness course explores the key areas of background knowledge needed by business and systems analysts.

It is designed to encourage participation through combining lectures with discussion sessions.

Practical exercises are also used to allow participants to apply their knowledge to business situations.

We also provide private and in-company Commercial Awareness courses. Call 01273 622272 to discuss.

Commercial Awareness Course Objectives

At the end of this Commercial Awareness course, delegates will be able to:

• Understand the techniques used to evaluate a financial case
• Understand costing and pricing
• Understand cash flow forecasting and budgeting
• Describe the contents of financial accounting documents
• Interpret financial accounts
• Explain specified business performance ratios
• Define the elements and usage of Porter’s Five Forces Framework and Value Chain
• Define the elements as usage of the Boston Consulting Group’s matrix
• Define the performance measures and usage of the Balanced Business Scorecard
• Define the elements of specified cultural analysis approaches
• Explain the different management structures and their characteristics
• Define the different architectures that may be adopted by organisations

BCS Certification

This Commercial Awareness course prepares participants to sit the one-hour, open book, examination leading to the BCS Certificate in Commercial Awareness. This certificate is a specialist module for the BCS Diploma in Business Analysis.

Download the full Commerical Awareness course outline:

Commercial Awareness Course Content

Financial reporting

• The balance sheet 
• The income and expenditure statement (profit and loss account) 
• The cash flow statement 
• Financial ratio analysis 

Budgeting, costing and pricing

• Budgets and departmental businesses 
• Cash flow and cash management 
• Costing and pricing

Evaluating a financial case

• The purpose of building a financial case 
• Techniques for evaluating a financial case: 
• Payback / breakeven 
• Discounted cash flow / net present value (DCF/NPV) 
• Internal rate of return (IRR)

Market analysis and competitive advantage

• Analysing the business domain 
• Analysing the product / service portfolio 
• Delivering business value

Organisational behaviour and culture

• What is organisational behaviour? 
• Organisational effectiveness and the balanced business scorecard 
• Understanding and analysing culture 

Working in groups

• Groups and group dynamics 
• Formal and informal groups 

Organisational structure

• Organisation structuring 
• Types of jobs 
• Line, staff and functional responsibilities 
• Formalisation of rules and procedures 
• Centralisation versus decentralisation 

Operating models

• Organisation structures and their characteristics 
• Organisational boundaries