Finance
Teaching
Harley Davidson Financial Analysts Speak to the Advanced Financial Management Class
Fall 2011
On September 20 2011, Prof. Arena’s Advanced Financial Management class (FINA 4001) hosted a presentation by Paul Bowe, Financial Manager of General Merchandising and Licensing – Harley Davidson, and Stuart Winter, Financial Analyst of Parts and Accessories – Harley Davidson.
Mr. Bowe and Winter explained the investment decision making process at Harley-Davidson providing examples of capital budgeting analyses for the Harley-Davidson museum and a recent online merchandising project. Bowe also talked about the recent implementation by Harley-Davidson of Monte Carlo simulations for capital budgeting decisions.
The two financial managers also took the opportunity to make students aware of the job and internship opportunities made available by their firm to Finance and Accounting Marquette students. The Finance Excellence Program at Harley-Davidson is a recent rotational program for new hires in the area of finance and accounting. In recent years this program has fostered the professional growth of excellent Marquette graduates including Mr. Winter.
Valuation Teaching Workshop
Summer 2011
This summer the finance department hosted a teaching workshop for finance, real estate, adjunct, and management faculty to share how we teach valuation in our different courses. Valuation and financial analysis is a pervasive theme throughout our courses. It is taught in investment analysis, advanced financial management, investment banking, commercial real estate, entrepreneurial finance, and strategy classes. The hallmark of all of these classes is the use of applying financial theory through various valuation projects whether it is selecting which stocks to invest in, assessing a firm’s capital structure, determining an IPO price, deciding how much to pay for a commercial property, or making a private equity investment. We discovered that we largely favor a discounted cash flow approach although we include other models such as multiples and LBO models. We also recognized that valuations using multiples are quite prevalent in the industry. The learning goals for our students centered less on the mechanics on the valuation but more about understanding the business model of a company and the underlying source of profits and cash flows for each company. We shared best practices of marrying mechanics and theory with a common sense understanding of how businesses work. We also discussed ways to enhance the curriculum with respect to teaching valuation as students move from introductory finance to more advanced finance classes.