Blood Bank vs Piggy Bank: Keys to Harmonizing Margin and Mission

Tired of fighting with the finance department to get the resources you need to carry out your mission? Ever feel that your CFO is from a different planet and that you just can’t communicate? Do financial concerns kill creativity and stifle progress in your organization? Where is the peace? Where is the love?

This lecture will give you practical tips and tools to help your organization balance operational and financial considerations. First, this course unlocks the mysterious world of accounting . . . revealing the core principles, objectives, and concepts of this centuries-old art. Next, we tackle the sometimes thorny subject of “Margin” verses “Mission” providing some useful prospective on this important topic. Next, we shatter the language barrier, giving you simple terms and lingo to facilitate financial communications. Soon you’ll be fluent in the latest accounting jargon. Finally, we conclude with some take-home financial analysis tools that will have your finance people saying: “Wow! – How’d you get so darn smart?!!!”

Originally presented on September 23, 2014, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Lecture Presenter

Kent Gordon, CPA, MAcc Vice President, Controller ARUP Laboratories

Kent Gordon has been the controller for ARUP Laboratories since May 2000. He is a certified public accountant with more than 20 years of accounting and auditing experience. Before joining ARUP, Mr. Gordon served as controller for Associated Food Stores in Salt Lake City and as an audit manager for Coopers and Lybrand, LLP. As an auditor, Mr. Gordon served a wide variety of public and private companies throughout the western United States. He has a master’s in accounting from Southern Utah University and is a frequent speaker on the topics of corporate budgeting and financial management.

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Objectives

After this presentation, participants will be able to:

• Recognize and appreciate the value and beauty of accounting.
• Converse with greater freedom and confidence in financial realms.
• Balance operational needs and economic constraints in a productive way.
• Build simple, but effective, financial analysis models.

Sponsored by:

ARUP Laboratories