Essential Soft Skills for Business Professionals

UPDATED 2024: Tagging along with the International Business team from Central Products, you will attend a conference in Nigeria to learn more about Africa’s largest economy. Here, you will take a closer look at topics like direct foreign investment, the importance of local cultures, and sustainability practices to help understand the intricacies of doing business in various international contexts. Course Type: Business Simulation. Worth 2 PDCs (SHRM).

UPDATED 2024: In Vetting Foreign Markets, you will explore the social contexts of various countries and begin to understand how this facet of culture dramatically impacts international business operations. Alongside the employees of Central Products, you will conduct research and discover the importance of foreign cultures when considering business ventures abroad. Course Type: Business Simulation. Worth 2 PDCs (SHRM).

This course tackles the question: Is it ethical to “manage” the earnings number – that is, to use legitimate discretion in the preparation of the financial statements to manage the numbers in a way that serves the interests of the manager independent of whether it serves the interest of the firm’s owners? We begin by creating an ethical framework based on the professional code of ethics. We then cover the what, why, how and when of earnings management behavior, describing and illustrating the variety of ways in which managers use their discretion in operating, investing, financing, and reporting decisions to influence the financial reports. In the vast majority of these cases, we rely on real-world examples, taken from publicly-available financial statements that received unqualified audit opinions. For the various categories of earnings management, we consider how they can be evaluated within the ethical framework we established in the beginning of the course. The result is an informed and thoughtful approach to assessing whether a given earnings management practice is consistent with professional ethics, a valuable tool whether you are an external auditor reviewing a set of statements, a preparer of the statements, or an outsider attempting to determine the usefulness of the statements. Worth 3 Technical CPE Credits (CPA/NASBA)

In this brief course on properly managing key determinants of ROE, Dr. Pratt provides brief summary of time value of money, particularly emphasizing the internal rate of return, before moving on to other important concepts like shareholder value. Culminating with an analysis on the current market value of the well-known retailer, Best Buy, this course will guide learners in identifying where management needs to focus attention to increase overall firm value. Course Type: Video. Worth 2 Technical CPE Credits (CPA/NASBA).