On my last trip for about a month now. At the Business Literacy Institute we have had a few trainings this summer we normally don’t have. It’s good for business to have this going on but not so good for my attempt for a lazy summer. This week is a quick in and out trip to Washington DC to do a class for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). I’ve done their annual training program for probably about 6-7 years, last year Jim covered the class for me.
This year it was back in the saddle again and it was a great class. I like this broadcasting group, we have built a little bit of an industry specialty with broadcasting. The class consists mainly of smaller local radio and TV businesses and then some managers from the bigger national companies. As usual the group had a lot of good questions.
We do the session in a 1/2 day and we quickly go over the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements. It’s what I like to call fire hose finance. I often don’t make it through the material, this year I pushed ahead and got it done. I think the class was well received. Last week I did EA and got a 100% net promoter score (NPS) both days which was something of a record. We don’t do the NPS with this group but I feel like we connected well.
There was a lot of interest in the class on forecasting and using the statements as an analytical tool. We calculate some fundamental ratios on the statements for CBS. We go over key ratios like return on assets, net profit margin and operating profit margin. While that is just a start on the key financial ratios the group gets a good feel for how these numbers are calculated and what they mean for a business in the income industry.
The class came away with a good understanding of the numbers and how they can apply those numbers to their business. As usual NAB was a great host and I got a good meal at a restaurant called Quill. I also for the first time in a few years wore a tie. NAB is a button-down type of organization.
It’s always nice to visit Washington DC, I got a chance to go by the White House which is nearby and check out the protesters. Not as many as I thought I’d see but still a few. It was a great day for finance but not for walking around. The temperature was one of those 90 degrees 90% humidity days. I’m glad to be flying back to the dry 95 degrees of Utah.
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