Strategy and Operations Through a CFO Lens

Strategy and Operations Through a CFO Lens

Strategy and Operations Through a CFO Lens provides a unique opportunity for students to hear from and interact with chief financial officers of over ten of the most significant business entities headquartered in Southern California. We address strategic and operational issues that each of these entities and their industries face, including competing on technology, predicting and measuring the consumer, financing and managing through the financial crisis, optimizing performance with the government as the primary customer, and others.

The class contains eight industry segments, each initially focusing on key issues that a single industry faces and migrating to a few key issues within one or two companies and how specific CFOs address them. Each segment generally contains three sessions. During the first, we discuss strategic objectives and performance within one industry group, focusing on the key moving parts, relevant issues and where to look to effectively measure performance. During the second, we use a debate format to focus on how one company drive performance with respect to these key issues. During the third and sometimes the fourth, we hear from the CFO of the company (or companies) within that industry group in a heavily interactive session as to how he or she manages the business with respect to the issue or issues and the sources of information used to manage them.

During the Spring 2012 semester, we anticipating having the CFOs of Ryland Homes, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Edison International, Avery Dennison, Dole Foods, Mattel, Disney, Sony Pictures, Northrop Grumman, Farmers Insurance and The Getty Trust. During the Fall 2011 semester, the class had the CFOs of TCW, the City of Los Angeles, Sempra Energy, Avery Dennison, Dole Foods, DreamWorks Animation, Amgen, Fox Filmed Entertainment, Amgen and KB Home.