From CFO to CEO: Course Report

國際事務室暨GMBA辦公室

撰文者／GMBA辦公室

This course was delivered by John Li, a former CEO of Taiwan Cement Corp., (TCC) and the main objective of this course is to let us understand how CEOs build long-term strategies from financial management perspectives.

Therefore, it is recommended that GMBA students take Financial Management and Financial Reporting courses before you take this course to understand the class contents deeply. In addition, this course is an intensive course with a total of 4 sessions and held on Saturday.

In the first class, we studied basic concepts of investments such as risk hedging, the calculations by using the concept of net present value and so on. This content can be better understood by taking financial management classes beforehand.

In the second class, professional guest speakers from KPMG, City Bank and MEGA came to the lecture and discussed M&A, ESG investment and market trends in Taiwan. Especially regarding M&A, we simulated real-life situations that might occur and shared our ideas. It was really practical and it would be helpful when we run or manage a company in the future.

In the third class, we studied the importance of the monetary market and how to read trends and what we will use to read trends. In addition, we also studied geographical research methods to understand stagflation risks in each area in the world by using CPI and how to avoid these risks.

In the last class, we visited the TCC Taipei office and learned how they manage their law materials by using the latest systems and how they contribute to Taiwan. For example, TCC opened TCC DAKA Park in Hualian and sells handmade goods made by Taiwan aborigines. In other words, TCC is engaged in creating jobs for Taiwan aborigines as an ESG investment. In addition to these activities, we also understood the history of TCC and how they became a leading company in the cement industry in Taiwan.

Through this course, we can study how CEOs face companies’ problems from financial perspectives when we become a management position.