Business Foundations Specialization

This course provides a brief introduction to the fundamentals of finance, emphasizing their application to a wide variety of real-world situations spanning personal finance, corporate decision-making, and financial intermediation. Key concepts and applications include: time value of money, risk-return tradeoff, cost of capital, interest rates, retirement savings, mortgage financing, auto leasing, capital budgeting, asset valuation, discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, net present value, internal rate of return, hurdle rate, payback period.

100% online course

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Approx. 9 hours to complete

Suggested: 4 weeks of study, 4-7 hours/week

English

Subtitles: English, Korean

Skills you will gain

Corporate FinanceDecision-MakingCash Flow AnalysisFinance

100% online course

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Approx. 9 hours to complete

Suggested: 4 weeks of study, 4-7 hours/week

English

Subtitles: English, Korean

Syllabus - What you will learn from this course

1

Section

2 hours to complete

Week 1: Time Value of Money

Welcome to Introduction to Corporate Finance! This first module will introduce you to one of the most important foundational concepts in Finance, the time value of money. Before diving into the Video lectures, I encourage you to take a look at the brief pre-reading for the course. Specifically, have a look at “Big Picture Course Motivation,” for additional motivation and context for the course, “Time Value of Money Overview,” for a motivation and context for our first topic, and “Quiz Problem Answer Input.” This last note is particularly important to avoid confusion with the problem sets. Then, go to the Video Lectures and start learning Finance! ...

4 videos (Total 41 min), 6 readings, 4 quizzes

4 videos

Intuition and Discounting11m

Compounding7m

Useful Shortcuts13m

Taxes8m

6 readings

Syllabus10m

Big Picture Course Motivation10m

Time Value of Money Overview10m

Quiz Problem Answer Input10m

Lecture Slides10m

Finance Matters: additional information about the field of Finance10m

4 practice exercises

Problem Set 1: TVM: Intuition Discounting10m

Problem Set 2: TVM: Compounding10m

Problem Set 3: TVM: Useful Shortcuts8m

Problem Set 4: TVM: Useful Shortcuts10m

2

Section

1 hour to complete

Week 2: Interest Rates

In this module, we wrap up the Time Value of Money topic with a discussion of inflation before moving on to our second topic, Interest Rates, and introducing our third topic, Discounted Cash Flow Analysis. By the end of this module, you should feel comfortable with discounting and compounding arbitrary cash flow streams in order to value different claims and make better financial decisions. ...

4 videos (Total 49 min), 1 reading, 2 quizzes

4 videos

Inflation10m

APR and EAR13m

Term Structure15m

Discounted Cash Flow: Decision Making9m

1 readings

Lecture Slides10m

2 practice exercises

Problem Set 6: Interest Rates: APR and EAR8m

Problem Set 7: Interest Rates: Term Structure8m

3

Section

1 hour to complete

Week 3: Discounted Cash Flow Analysis

This module continues our discussion of discounted cash flow analysis by way of a capital budgeting case. (You might want to download or view the Excel file, “Tablet Case Spreadsheet.xlsx,” that I use in the lectures, but it is not necessary for understanding the material.) By the end of this module, you should feel comfortable valuing claims and making financing decisions in which the timing of the cash flows and compounding of interest is arbitrary (e.g., annual, semi-quarterly, monthly, etc.). Having worked through the problems, you should also be more comfortable with real world financial decision making related to retirement savings, home financing and refinancing, auto leases, and other scenarios. ...

3 videos (Total 50 min), 2 readings, 1 quiz

3 videos

Free Cash Flow13m

Forecast Drivers15m

Forecasting Free Cash Flow21m

2 readings

Lecture Slides10m

Tablet Case Spreadsheet10m

1 practice exercises

Problem Set 9: DCF: Free Cash Flow8m

4

Section

1 hour to complete

Week 4: Return on Investment

This module closes out our discussion of discounted cash flow analysis and caps off the course with a discussion of return on investment. By the end of this module, you should feel comfortable with the notion of free cash flow and the ability to apply a set of forecast drivers to project free cash flows into the future. These are some of the elements of a basic financial model, which we will use to come to a decision about the tablet project and to analyze the assumptions behind our valuation. ...

3 videos (Total 48 min), 1 reading, 1 quiz

3 videos

Decision Criteria10m

Sensitivity Analysis20m

Return on Investment17m

1 readings

Lecture Slides10m

1 practice exercises

Problem Set 14: Return on Investment8m

Instructor

Michael R Roberts

William H. Lawrence Professor of Finance, the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

About University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania (commonly referred to as Penn) is a private university, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. A member of the Ivy League, Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and considers itself to be the first university in the United States with both undergraduate and graduate studies. ...

Frequently Asked Questions

When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?
Once you enroll for a Certificate, you’ll have access to all videos, quizzes, and programming assignments (if applicable). Peer review assignments can only be submitted and reviewed once your session has begun. If you choose to explore the course without purchasing, you may not be able to access certain assignments.
What will I get if I pay for this course?
If you pay for this course, you will have access to all of the features and content you need to earn a Course Certificate. If you complete the course successfully, your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile. Note that the Course Certificate does not represent official academic credit from the partner institution offering the course.
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Business Foundations Specialization