Finance for Non-Finance Executives

Finance for Non-Finance Executives is a 5-day senior-level finance course delivered by Mars Training Centre UK across our international training centres — London, Dubai, Amsterdam, Kuala Lumpur and Vienna — designed for directors, vice presidents, and senior managers who carry profit-and-loss responsibility without a formal accounting background.

Most senior leaders sit through board packs, budget reviews, and investment cases that depend entirely on financial language they were never formally taught. The cost of bluffing is real: weaker negotiations with finance peers, slower decisions, missed signals in the numbers, and reduced credibility with the CFO and the board. This programme is built for executives who want to read the numbers as fluently as they read their own operational reports.

Across five focused days, you will work through the three financial statements, ratio analysis, budgeting, costing, capital expenditure decisions, and the questions senior executives should be asking finance teams. The cases are drawn from the United Kingdom, Europe, and the Middle East, and the work is delivered by senior practitioners with finance leadership experience.

What You Will Learn

• Interpret the three primary financial statements at executive level.
• Apply ratio analysis to assess the financial health of a business unit.
• Distinguish between profit, cash, and shareholder value as separate measures.
• Build and challenge an annual operating budget with confidence.
• Evaluate capital expenditure proposals using payback, NPV, and IRR.
• Analyse the cost structure of a business and its impact on margins.
• Ask informed and challenging questions of CFOs and finance directors.
• Read the working capital position of a business and identify pressure points.
• Communicate financial performance to non-finance stakeholders without distortion.
• Connect financial decisions to broader strategic and operational consequences.

How You Will Benefit

You will leave able to hold your own in any financial discussion at executive level, with a Mars Certificate of Completion.

Your organisation will gain a senior leader who reads the numbers correctly, makes better commercial decisions, challenges finance proposals constructively, and brings stronger judgement to budget, investment, and board conversations.

Who This Programme Is For

This programme is designed for senior leaders who do not come from a finance background, including:

• Senior Vice Presidents and Vice Presidents in non-finance functions
• General Managers and Country Managers
• Directors of operations, sales, marketing, HR, IT, and engineering
• Senior public-sector executives carrying budget responsibility
• Family-business principals and next-generation leaders
• Senior project and programme directors with P&L exposure

The seniority floor is senior manager and above. The programme is delivered in person over five consecutive days, with a Mars Certificate of Completion awarded on the final day.