From 14:00 to 17:20 on June 18, 2024,invited by Dr. Jack WOOAssociate Professor, Mr. SiaYongzheng, Finance Manager of CTF Education Group, explained the elements of financial planning, modeling and analysis in practice and on-site exercises to the students majoring in financial management, and shared the career development plan of financial personnel.
From 2012 to 2022, Mr. Sia has worked for Modern Beauty (Hong Kong stock code: 919)，Wharf Telecommunications Panasonic (Japan stock code: 6752), Leighton Asiaandthe West Kowloon Cultural District Authority.Mr. Sia is a member of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA) and CPA Australia.
Photo 1: Mr. Sia Wing-ching
At the forum, Mr. Sia first reviewed and put forward optimization suggestions for two groups of students who participated in the 2024 National University Business Elite Challenge Accounting and Business Management Case Competition. Mr. Sia emphasized that in the process of enterprise operation and management, financial analysis is the process of evaluating the current financial status and performance of an enterprise or a specific department, and through the collection, processing and in-depth mining of data, financial personnel and business managers can better understand the health of the current business operation and obtain a reliable basis for future decision-making. In this process, it is necessary to determine the analysis subject and objectives, and the financial analysis objectives are different for different financial analysis subjects. When conducting a financial analysis, it is important to clearly define the objectives of the analysis, and then to determine what information to collect and to complete all the steps of the financial analysis in sequence.
Photo 2: Mr. Sia interacting with the students
Subsequently, Mr. Sia shared the career development and career planning of financial personnel. Mr. Sia gave a detailed analysis and comparison of the development of graduates in different fields such ascommercialenterprises,auditfirms, consulting firms, etc. At the same time, he also made a comprehensive interpretation and sharing of key positions such as financial planning and analysis, financial system, financial operation, financial reporting and fund management. By expanding their career horizons, finance professionals can diversify and improve their career choices and development space. Mr. Sia believes that career planning for finance professionals is a process of continuous learning and growth. From beginner to proficient, they need to master basic financial knowledge and skills, gain experience through practice, deepen their professionalism and skill level, transform into finance leaders, and maintain an attitude of continuous learning and development. In this process, finance professionals also need to pay attention to industry dynamics and policy changes, and expand their career fields to achieve diversified development.
Figure 3: Students practice budget modeling on site
Finally, Mr. Sia introduced the key steps of financial modeling, and demonstrated in detail how to model and modify the model. After that, Mr. Sia asked the students to build a simplified version of the budget model (in groups of 5) in groups. The main purpose of financial modeling is to predict the financial performance of the target company or asset in the future period, so it is often equivalent to financial forecasting (Projection/Forecast). The students reported that they had a deeper understanding of financial budget modeling through the internship exercises. In today's competitive society, graduates need to have not only solid professional knowledge, but also certain hands-on skills, communication skills, problem-solving skills, etc. Improving hands-on skills is essential for graduates, not only to increase their employability, but also to lay a solid foundation for future career development.
