Chief Financial Officer Program

Comprehensive Curriculum

The Chief Financial Officer Program is a flexible learning journey designed for senior leaders in finance. You will learn through online and interactive sessions, fireside chats, and guest lectures led by Columbia Business School faculty, and global industry leaders. The program offers an expertly developed curriculum that spans three key phases that will equip you with the necessary tools to drive financial strategy and lead digital transformation at your organization.

• Core Modules

  The Chief Financial Officer Program will enhance your financial leadership and sharpen your decision-making skills through these carefully curated module topics:

  Strategic Leadership

  The modern CFO is expected to drive an organization's direction and growth through strategic decision making. This program looks at a CFO’s leadership and its role within the C-suite, drawing on the insights of top CFOs. 

  Module topics

  • Measuring strategy
  • Qualities of a financial leader
  • CFO as strategic partner to the CEO
  • Raising capital and managing investors
  • Regulatory compliance

  
  

  Leveraging Financial Data and Analytics

  To maximize an organization's financial performance, CFOs must utilize a growing volume of data and include analytics within their decision-making process. This program provides a framework for understanding and forecasting a business and its potential value. 

  Module topics

  • Operating cycle and value drivers
  • Defining good stewardship of capital
  • Macro revenue factors, materials, and supply chains
  • Capacity and capital expenditure
  • Capital structure
  • A global market: foreign currency
  • Bringing it all together: valuation

  
  

  Driving Innovation and Transformation

  To create long-term value for their organizations, CFOs need to forecast risks and uncertainties. This program covers key factors and complex challenges that impact long-range planning, providing the tools needed for a CFO to lead transformational change at their organization. 

  Module topics

  • Financial sustainability
  • Capital allocation
  • Mergers, acquisitions, and integration
  • Labor, talent, and compensation
  • Managing performance and compensation
  • Information systems and tomorrow's CFO
• Online Electives

  During the Chief Financial Officer Program, you will be able to choose two electives from relevant areas of specialization. These electives are designed to supplement the core learning process, enhance your skill sets, and explore practical strategies that help advance your career. Each elective is taught over approximately six weeks. The choice of electives includes:

  • Corporate Governance: Understand the responsibilities of corporate boards and their various committees in regulating organizations and creating long-term business value
  • ESG Investing: Build and manage a global portfolio that focuses on the ESG factors of sustainability, starting with investment principles and ending with financial valuation
  • Foundations of Venture Capital: Examine the early-stage VC landscape, understand the risks and rewards, and develop a systematic approach to evaluating opportunities
  • Mergers and Acquisitions: Learn a proven offensive and defensive framework, and understand the strategy, execution, legal components, and risks involved in M&A
  • Value Investing: Learn about the most successful investment strategy, practiced by famous investors including Warren Buffett, while developing critical thinking about growth and profitability

  Note: Electives are subject to change.

• Open-Enrollment Electives: In Person

  Select one program in person from relevant specializations that are designed to help you lead growth and drive change in a dynamic business environment. Participants can work with their success coach to identify the best fit for them based on their goals. Some of the examples include:

  •  Developing and Leading High-Performance Teams
  •  Driving Strategic Impact
  •  Financial Analysis and Valuation
  •  Leading in a Data-Driven World: Developing Quantitative Intuition™
  •  Real Estate Investing
  •  Venture Capital

  Note: While Columbia Business School Executive Education will attempt to accommodate participant preference selections, we cannot guarantee that all preferences will be granted due to the high demand for our open-enrollment programs. Electives are subject to change.

• On-Campus Networking Event | Two Days

  Meet your cohort peers and faculty in person on the Columbia Business School campus in New York City during an optional two-day recognition ceremony and networking event. This event provides you an opportunity to network with your peers as well as professionals from other cohorts to create a lifelong community of global executives.

  
  

Note: Session topics and networking event duration are subject to change.