Question

The choices for the blanks are:

Why Do People in Finance Matter? Why do people in finance matter? Finance management is known to involve number crunching, crafting complex models, and creating and reviewing critical financial information. Finance managers are responsible for integrating with the capital markets, raising and allocating capital for new investments or existing projects, profit planning, and establishing economic efficiencies in the firm. But in reality, finance managers at Cengage Learning are more like business partners. They are advocates and filters who help in the identification and realization of value drivers in the firm and particularly in new projects. Sanford Tassel, Dikran Yapoujian, and Chris Buzzard are three prominent members of the finance team at the company. In a conversation with the three, Sanford Tassel, Senior Vice President, Finance and Operations, shared his thoughts on working as a finance professional. Sanford said, "Job satisfaction for me is derived from being a business partner and advocate to our leaders. It is very easy to be risk averse and reject most projects or investments, but our job as finance partners is to evaluate each project objectively and ensure that we make the appropriate decision to help achieve Cengage's strategic and financial objectives." Dikran Yapoujian, Vice President, Finance, added, "What I particularly enjoy about this position is the opportunity to act as a partner to the business. We work closely with product teams and executive management to ensure projects fit economically and strategically with the firm's growth road map. A significant portion of our team's time is devoted to the management of our product portfolios and the evaluation, prioritization, and allocation of capital to existing and new projects." Chris Buzzard, Senior Director, Finance, seconded everything that Sanford and Dikran said and added, "Strictly looking at numbers and criteria will generally tell you if an investment can be undertaken, but as business partners, our job is often to ensure that an investment should be undertaken. A healthy dose of business judgment and strategic priority is required in matters of cash flow estimation and risk adjustment to add color to an otherwise black-and-white evaluation. To quote a mentor of mine from school, 'It's often better to be generally right than exactly wrong." Financial management is beyond numbers; it has more to do with what we do with the numbers and what we make of it. Computers can generate numbers, but the insights and the decisions rely on people in finance! The finance team is an integral part of this decision-making process. The above passage describes an interview in which three members of Cengage Learning's finance team share their thoughts on why people in finance matter. Read the passage and then complete the following statements. The finance team works with the executive and product groups providing decision support and analytical assistance to help the leadership team make the right decisions. The people in finance evaluate projects objectively to ensure that the company is making intelligent investment decisions based on

1) separately/like angel investors/like business partners/like prime lenders

2) strategic priorities/investment needs

Answer 1

The answers for the blanks as follow:

Blank 1- like business partners

Blank 2- strategic priorities