QIA Executive Workshops
The QIA Executive Workshops Series encompasses 9 workshops over a two and a half month period. Apprentices engage in impactful workshops covering topics including: Advanced Excel, Business Analytics, Business Presentations, Business Writing, Cybersecurity, Financial Modelling, Leadership, Negotiation, and Project Management.
Advanced Excel
Mastering Microsoft Excel is key for professionals trying to combine quantitative and qualitative analysis in the workplace. This workshop will allow participants to become proficient in performing advanced tasks on MS-Excel. To help participants attain this proficiency, the workshop will be structured and geared towards using the software in business applications and settings instead of learning Excel in the abstract. We will be working with scenarios and examples that mimic those used in a professional environment. In the first part of each session, we will be focusing on a particular function, understanding what the function does, when to implement it and how to execute it. In the second part of each session, participants will have to apply functions covered in class to solve a business case model.
Business Analytics
Understanding how to use data on Microsoft Excel is paramount to honing one’s ability to synthesize business analytics. This workshop will cover three essential MS Excel skills: Data Analysis, Inference, and Time Series Analysis. After each lesson, there will be a practice session during which participants will apply the techniques to various datasets. The workshop will encompass five days spanning the following topics: Presentation & Analysis of Quantitative and Qualitative Data, Inferential Analysis, Prediction: Regression, Classification: Clustering and Logit, and the Final Assessment.
Business Presentations
Making convincing presentations requires excellent communication skills and it is now a core requirement for most careers in finance. This workshop will lead participants to extract meaning, synthesize ideas, and communicate these to an investment board. The participants will prepare, present, discuss, and critique the different oral presentations currently practiced in business. Topics will include developing verbal and physical presence; planning presentations based on audience needs and expectations; projecting personal credibility, professionalism, and appropriate emotional responses; and using various multi-media technologies.
Business Writing
Having concrete strategies for business communication in the written form can help businesspeople in many aspects of their job. This workshop will guide participants in learning how to identify key language features that are shared and particular to common genres like business plans, reports, and feasibility studies. Participants will practice concrete strategies for clear writing that are applicable to any business writing genre, including: strong subjects and verbs to help the reader process complex information; focused and coherent paragraphs to keep the reader on track; concise wording that avoids jargon while managing technical vocabulary. Participants will practice specific strategies for document organization and design that facilitate the reader’s goals, including use of headings, visual hierarchy, parallelism in lists, and chunking of information.
Cybersecurity
For employees in investment and finance organizations, cybersecurity plays a dual role. This workshop will explain how businesspeople must understand their part in protecting organization and client information from cyber attack. They must also be able to identify when a security or fintech company being evaluated for investment has a legitimate product as opposed to simply peddling snake oil. First, we will help attendees protect their organizations by discussing good password strategies as well as common social engineering attacks. Second, we will present a basic, high-level overview of cryptography and blockchain technologies, and discuss strategies for determining if a company is overselling their ideas and technologies in either of these two areas.
Financial Modeling
Gaining financial modeling skills is required for a career in equity research, corporate finance, and investment banking. This workshop will teach participants how to build a complete 3-Statement Financial Model that presents a company’s financial results by using historical performance and applying industry standard techniques to make accurate projections about the future performance. The goal is to build a financial model with future projections where all three financial statements (i.e. Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Statement Cash Flows) are properly linked together. The skills acquired in this workshop serve the basis for company valuation.
Leadership
Becoming proficient in facing modern management challenges imposed by a fast-paced business environment is difficult to achieve for many businesspeople. This workshop will examine “what” creates and sustains the leadership process emerging from the interaction between the leader, the followers, and surrounding context, “why” it is important, and “when” it is critical to engage in leadership actions. Each lesson will discuss alternative approaches to leadership, compare various leadership styles and followers, and examine a range of leadership dynamics. Furthermore, the workshop will provide trainees with the opportunity to learn and apply new knowledge and skills that can help them in their job and further their career.
Negotiation
Everyday negotiations are filled with complexity, therefore underpinning the important role of perceptions, cognitions, and emotions. This workshop will provide insights into the theory and practice of negotiation. Negotiation will be analyzed as an interactive process through which individuals and teams with seemingly competing interests decide how to allocate resources in multiple ways. This theoretical approach will be complemented by in-class negotiation experiences and case studies with the goal of understanding the practical implications of the topics investigated.
Project Management
As organizations continue to look for ways to reduce costs, managers are often expected to oversee special projects in addition to their traditional responsibilities. When a project is too complex for one person to handle, the project manager is expected to lead a team of diverse employees to complete the assignment. This workshop will assist the project manager to break down a complex project into manageable segments, lead a diverse project team, and use effective tools to ensure that the project meets its deliverables and is completed within budget and on schedule. This workshop develops the skills and perspectives of using project management techniques to plan, organize, and control projects. The contents constitute planning, organizing, and controlling projects. The workshop includes major topics of strategy, priorities, organization and project tools. Primary workshop emphasis is on the project management process and tools.