5.0
Reviewed Jun 10, 2025Duke overal commitment to its on-line courses is a step above the competition.
Overall, this course gave me a much stronger understanding of how financial concepts connect to business decisions. Coming from an operations and business management background, I was already familiar with revenue, costs, margins, and P&L, but the course helped me look at these numbers from a broader financial perspective. What I found most valuable was learning how financial statements, cash flow, working capital, ROIC, and value creation are interconnected. It challenged me to look beyond simply increasing revenue or reducing costs and instead ask whether a business decision is actually creating sustainable value. The concepts were particularly relevant to my role in the contact center industry. I was able to relate the lessons to real situations involving account profitability, pricing, workforce investment, payment terms, cash flow, resource utilization, and decisions to continue, restructure, or exit an account. One area I would have liked to explore further is the connection between operational forecasting and the final Finance P&L, particularly how items such as depreciation, financing costs, and other accounting adjustments affect the final financial results. Overall, the course has helped me become more financially informed in how I evaluate business performance and make recommendations to management. Rather than trying to become a finance specialist, my goal is to be a stronger business leader who can understand the financial implications of operational decisions and use that knowledge to support better strategic decisions. I found the course practical, relevant, and highly applicable to my current leadership role.