Finance isn't about numbers
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It's about understanding how businesses create value
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Finance isn't about numbers --- It's about understanding how businesses create value ---
Finance for Non-Finance Managers
Understand how businesses really make money.
Executive Education
Learn how businesses create value, generate cash, improve profitability and make better commercial decisions. This two-day executive programme will help you understand the financial impact of everyday business decisions, improve commercial awareness and develop the confidence to contribute beyond your own role.
Level:
Executive Education
CPD Certification
Duration:
2 Days
9 am to 5 pm each day
Next Dates:
14th to 15th October 2026
27th to 28th January 2027
Location:
Dundee, Scotland
Investment:
£1,275 plus VAT
Understand how businesses really make money.
Managers don't need to become accountants.
They need to understand how businesses create value, why some organisations consistently outperform others, and how the decisions they make every day influence profitability, cash flow and long-term success.
This practical two-day executive education programme is designed for professionals who want to learn how money flows through an organisation, where value is created, where it is lost, and how finance becomes one of the most powerful tools available to better leaders.
Finance isn't about numbers.
It's about better business decisions.
Why is this programme different?
Many finance programmes begin with financial statements. This programme begins with the business.
Every business exists for one reason. To create something that customers value. Everything else is simply the process of making that happen.
Finance doesn’t create profit. People do. Processes do. Customers do. Products do. Services do. Leadership does. Finance is just the language that records what happened.
Every person, every department, every decision, every meeting, and every process either adds value, consumes value or destroys value.
Once you understand that, financial reports stop being intimidating and become some of the most valuable management tools you'll ever use.
By the end of this programme, you'll no longer see finance as the responsibility of the finance department.
You'll understand how every role contributes to commercial performance and how better financial awareness leads to better business decisions.
We don’t teach accounting theory, we teach commercial confidence, helping you understand how organisations create profit, manage cash, improve performance and make better decisions.
Executive education should change the way you think, not just increase what you know.
This programme combines practical real-world experience with structured learning to help you make better decisions from the moment you return to work.
What you'll learn
This programme focuses on commercial performance and practical business finance.
Together we'll explore:
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How successful businesses create sustainable value and why commercial awareness matters in every role.
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The difference between revenue, profit, margin and cash, and why they don't always move together.
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How businesses really make money, how products are costed, where margins are won or lost and why pricing decisions matter.Description text goes here
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Why profitable businesses still fail and how cash moves through an organisation.
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Understanding assets, liabilities, stock, debtors, creditors and the practical decisions that influence available cash.
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Why good planning creates better businesses, better decisions and fewer surprises.
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How complexity, duplication, poor communication, unnecessary process variation and operational inefficiency quietly reduce profitability.
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Follow the journey from a customer enquiry through purchasing, production, delivery and payment to understand where value is created—and where costs accumulate.
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Understand the purpose of management accounts, sales reports and statutory financial statements. Learn to interpret Profit & Loss Accounts, Balance Sheets and Cash Flow Statements with confidence, and use them to support better commercial decision-making.
Who should attend?
This programme is designed for professionals who influence business performance but do not come from a finance background.
It is particularly valuable for:
Business owners
Directors
Department managers
Team leaders
Operations managers
Manufacturing managers
Sales managers
Marketing managers
HR professionals
Engineers
Project managers
Technical specialists preparing for leadership roles
No previous financial knowledge is required.
By the end of the programme you'll be able to...
✔ Understand how businesses create and retain value.
✔ Read financial reports with confidence.
✔ Understand profitability and margin.
✔ Explain where cash goes.
✔ Pinpoint efficiency opportunities.
✔ Recognise the importance of working capital.
✔ Identify financial leakage hidden within everyday business activities.
✔ Make commercially stronger decisions.
✔ Ask better questions.
✔ Communicate more effectively with finance teams.
✔ Understand how your role contributes to organisational performance.
Meet your programme leader
Heather Ogilvie
Heather Ogilvie is a former Group Strategist, Chief Financial Officer, and Chartered Accountant, an International Turnaround Specialist and Executive Advisor with more than thirty years' experience helping organisations transform, grow, and improve commercial performance.
A Financial Times Women in Business Mentor and founder of the charity MoneyMinds Scotland SCIO, Heather is passionate about helping people build confidence with money and understand how businesses really work. She has taught hundreds of people about business, finance and commercial decision-making, and is known for explaining complex concepts in simple, practical and memorable ways.
Heather believes finance shouldn't be intimidating. It should give people the confidence to ask better questions, make better decisions, and contribute more effectively to both their organisation's and their own personal success.
Why Ogilvie Business School?
At Ogilvie Business School, all education is delivered by experienced practitioners who have led organisations, solved real business challenges and understand what it takes to create lasting commercial success.
Our programmes combine practical experience with structured learning, giving participants knowledge they can apply immediately within their own organisations.
We believe great executive education doesn't simply increase knowledge.
It changes the way you think.
Why Choose This Programme
Learn from a former Group CFO, Chartered Accountant and international turnaround specialist with more than thirty years' experience helping organisations improve performance.
✓ Practical commercial finance with immediate real-world application.
✓ Understand how businesses create profit, cash flow and long-term value.
✓ Clear, jargon-free teaching designed for non-finance professionals.
✓ Improve the quality of your decisions, conversations and commercial confidence.
✓ Apply what you learn immediately in your organisation.
✓ Small executive cohort.
✓ CPD Certificate on successful completion.
✓ Membership of the Ogilvie Business Alumni Network.
Programme Fee
£1,275 plus VAT
Your programme fee includes:
Two full days of expert teaching
Course materials
Refreshments and lunch
Certificate of Completion
Membership of the Ogilvie Business Alumni Network, with access to networking opportunities, programme updates and exclusive alumni offers
Ready to see your business differently?
Whether you're preparing for your first management role, leading a department or running an organisation, understanding business finance will transform the way you make decisions.
Join us in Dundee for two practical days that will change how you think about business.