Business

Congratulations! You are about to graduate with your bachelor's degree. While you are mixing and mingling with the guests at your graduation party, your second cousin, twice removed, on your mother's side, who received his MBA three years ago, asks you to tell him about some of the courses that you had taken. After you tell him that financial management was one of the courses, he asks you the following questions: * What factors can managers actually influence that affect stock price' * What role do you think ethics plays in financial management in corporations today' * For recent graduates, are there any new finance careers or "hot" areas of opportunity' Managers, in fact, can control several things that would directly affect the stock price. Firstly, the stock prices go high, if the company performs as expected by the stake holders and the stock prices go down if the company does not stand up to the expectation of the stakeholders. So a manager, by creating an efficient management team and by adopting guaranteed management techniques can very well determine the performance of the company and which in turn will offer a steady rise to the price of the stocks. Secondly, stock prices are generally decided by the number of shares that the company decides to float. The manager can have a very influential role in deciding the number of shares that a company floats. Thirdly, manger can influence the timing of cash flows that have a direct effect on the price of the markets. Fourthly, if a company acquires or enters into a merger with another company, this will affect the price of the shares. A manager, with proven administrative skills, can lead a company towards acquisitions, which will force a steady increase in the share prices. Thus, a manager can in many ways affect the price of shares. Ethics, in my opinion, plays a prominent role in financial management. If a company desires to be successful in the market, it has to be honest with its financial situation. It is mandatory that a company scrutinizes without any bias its own financial stand in order to arrive at radical plans for its future. Further, any company that is not hones with its own financial situation would try to keep its stakeholders at dark and it will surely lead to turmoil. A company that learns to balance between ethics and financial management is sure to reap better rewards in the future. Transparency in operations is expected of every company and this can be arrived at only if the company accords ethics its rightful role in its operations. The current market scenario does offer hot career opportunities in the area of finance. At the wake of financial crisis, ‘Risk Management’ is a hot spot that calls for numerous vacancies. Graduates who are certified in risk management have a better scope, if they have the necessary skill to identify the lapses in the administrative system and can be innovative to propose a remedy that would bring the company towards its desired path of progress. ‘Internal Audit’ is another opportunity that almost does the same as mentioned above. The companies today appoint internal audits, who make an independent evaluation of the financial and operational efficiency of the firm they work with. The higher level management go through their evaluation and make the necessary changes to the system to arrive at normalcy. Thus, the internal audits are almost the conscience of a company. (450 words) http://www.sharetipsinfo.com/factoraffecting-stockprice.html http://www.theiia.org/theiia/about-the-profession/internal-audit-faqs/'i=1077