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Our Core Competencies

What We Offer

The Business Literacy Institute offers products and services to ensure that everyone understands the financial side of business. We offer training classes for employees, managers, and leaders. We develop visuals, called Money Maps®, to reinforce key concepts. We develop webinars to ensure that everyone has access to the learning. We offer keynotes to share our passion for financial knowledge.

We customize our training programs, maps, webinars, and keynotes so that the participants learn the concepts and then immediately apply those concepts to their company and their financials. Our facilitators are highly skilled, with a clear understanding of what non-financial employees, managers, and leaders need to understand about finance.

We believe that everyone in an organization, from the front-line to the executive office, should understand how financial success is measured and how they make an impact. Our innovative programs create practical, engaging, and effective learning experiences that promote your company's financial success. How do we do it?

Customization

Customized financial training is one key to your company's success. With customization, participants learn a concept, and then can immediately learn how it applies in their own company. With customization, the participant has an opportunity to analyze his or her own financial statements, and discuss what the results mean. And with customization, the participant can focus on the concepts that are key in his or her own organization. Our experience has shown that learning is more effective, and is longer lasting, when the learning content applies to them, their work, and their organization.

To create the customized training programs, we work closely with you and your in-house experts to develop the content and to ensure we are focused on the needs of the participants and on your company's key concepts and key measures.

Interactive Classes

We understand that there could be concerns about a finance class. Some might be intimidated. Others may not want to appear unknowledgeable. And a few might be concerned that a class would be dull or dry. So, our approach is to create an engaging and interactive environment. Our trainers use current news stories to illustrate financial concepts. They use humor to create a relaxed and open environment. And we put together a program that is a mix of lecture, discussion, individual practice, group exercise, visual tools, and case studies. Our live classes are dynamic because discussion and interaction are welcome, and the participants have a chance to ask questions they may not have been comfortable asking their bosses. Participants also have an opportunity to discuss financial issues within their own company.

Our programs also go beyond the theoretical by emphasizing practical application throughout each class. Concepts come alive for our participants when they see and discuss just how the program content applies both to their job and to the company as a whole.

Dynamic Trainers

Business Literacy Institute facilitators have the unique ability to combine financial expertise with strong classroom skills, using a blend of serious content, humor, storytelling, entertaining examples, and practical applications. They are experts in and enthusiastic about finance. And, they understand what a non-financial employee, manager, and leader needs to know. The programs take a smart, down-to-earth, real-world approach.

Our facilitators are:

• Experts in finance who can teach the concepts thoroughly and answer questions completely.
• Experts in learning who understand how to teach for long-term retention and use. They ensure that learning becomes an ongoing process rather than a single event.
• Operational people. Our facilitators are not "accountants." They work in the real world and understand the issues you face. Their focus is on the business, not on accounting.
• Low maintenance. These are professionals, willing to travel nationally and internationally to reach your employee base. They keep it simple—there is no complicated laundry list of needs to accommodate.

Relevant Content

Our collaborative approach to client relationships ensures that the training content is in alignment with your needs, your terminology, and your approach. We work with your in-house experts, and we respond quickly to changes in your organization so that the content is always relevant.

Training Approaches

We offer live instruction courses, webinars, and one-on-one coaching. Each approach meets different needs.

Our live, instructor-led courses are perfect for teaching finance. Finance can be perceived as dry and dull, and many avoid it. An instructor-led course can show people how engaging, interesting, and fun finance can be. And, the interaction between facilitator and participants, and between participants and participants, allows for a depth of discussion that goes beyond the basics.

Webinars address the financial and logistical concerns of flying everyone in for a training. Participants take part via the Web and telephone in an interactive 60- or 90-minute webinar. Each webinar is focused on a specific topic to ensure maximum learning.

Webinars can also be an important tool for ongoing learning and reinforcing skills. For example, live instruction can be followed up by quarterly webinars that refresh and reinforce the original learning.

When individual training is required, one-on-one coaching is the best solution. Typical clients for one-on-one coaching are division presidents, board members, and others at the executive level. The topics are tailored to the specific needs of the individual, and our coaches take particular care to ensure that the individual gains the knowledge he or she needs to move forward.

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