Bottom Line

Today I am in Bloomfield, CT presenting a popular program "Understanding the Bottom Line." It presents concepts that impact the bottom line of companies that make or sell products. It most certainly is not a program along the lines of "Finance and Accounting for Non-Financial Managers." Those sorts of programs usually present the mechanics of how accounting works, what sort of reports are generated and how the manager can use that information. Certainly these are good things to know.

"Understanding the Bottom Line," on the other hand, is not interested in how accounting reports are constructed, but rather focuses on how the operating manager's decisions and actions influence the outcomes and results reflected in the accounting reports. The program is "hands on" using a series of short cases and exercises to establish and reinforce concepts. Participants leave the program with a new appreciation of the power of gross margins, the danger of margin erosion, what it takes to break-even and the true cost of an employee. For the operating manager, these concepts are essential.

A vice president of one company attended the program sponsored by his trade association. He later told his boss that all employees should take the program. Reciting his own experience he said "To be honest, I lost sight of what the hell a gross margin is and how it can help or hurt us." People at all levels of his company subsequently took the program.


Dan Pelley presents "Understanding the Bottom Line" to managers of wholesale distributors, job shop manufacturers and retailers from New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. For more information on his programs, click this link to Dan Pelley Educational Services

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
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