Financial Literacy – A stepping stone to success

Author: Dr. Azadeh Hadian

In current times, it is not only important but useful to understand the basic financial aspects both at the personal and professional levels. It helps make the right decisions at the right time, especially for businesses. For example, assessing the cost and profit of any production or risk and return of any investment project an individual or a corporation intends to produce or undertake. As a person aiming to manage his/her own company or even a fresh start-up, this knowledge provides valuable insights into operational viability and potential risks.

The Accounting and Finance program offered by Middle East College helps students get familiar with the basics of accounting for managers, including types of costs, cost-volume-profit analysis, break-even point and dollar/currency point calculations, cash budgeting, calculations of Payback period (PBP) and discounted payback period (DPBP), Net Present Value (NPV) and Profitability Index (PI) calculations. In addition, some covered topics related to portfolio management includes the calculation of return on a single asset, systematic risk (βeta) of a portfolio and return and standard deviation of a portfolio, the content of dividend and types of dividend policy, Merger and Acquisitions (M&A), calculation of bond value, and the discussion on operational issues companies are facing, and the possible solutions to address them.

Overall, the program provides significant learning which is beneficial to students and motivates them to realise how knowledge in Accounting and Finance can enhance the employee’s contribution to the performance of a company and even help a start-up run its operation more efficiently and effectively.

Dr. Azadeh Hadian is a faculty of Management Studies at MEC, and her prime area of interest is Finance.