Welcome GSCFM Students

Please print out each project and bring with you to Dartmouth. Please read and familiarize yourself with each group project before you arrive to and come prepared with your thoughts on each "check list" to see if any of the groups have any holes or gaps that could help ensure that a better credit department or decision are made.
 
If you have any questions, please contact Tracey Flaesch at (410) 740-5560, ext. 1029 or traceyf@nacm.org.

Team One

Team Two

Team Three

Team Four

What to Expect from the NACM Grad School

GSCFM « Apply Today « Application Process and Tuition «
Curriculum
« What to Expect « Instructor Bios

What Students Say:

“I cannot overstate the value that the program had for me, both professionally and personally. Aside from providing what I believe is the best preparation method for the CCE exam, the class and study structure allowed me to learn more about my profession in four short weeks than I could have ever learned otherwise. My horizons were definitely broadened as I interacted with peers from many industries, and not only did we have many fruitful discussions about our field, we had a lot of fun together as well!”
–Wayne Mattson, CCE,
accounts receivable manager,
DLT Solutions LLC

A Lifetime of Benefits, Measured in Weeks (pdf)

From Behind the Desk: GSCFM Through The Professor's Eyes

The GSCFM program is held on the campus of Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, New Hampshire. Hanover is a picturesque community of 10,850 residents situated in a valley on the banks of the beautiful Connecticut River. It is a little more than two hours by car from Boston, five from New York and three from Montreal.

Participants, staff and instructors are housed in one of the residential halls on Dartmouth campus. Meals are provided for the duration of the program. Participants are required to attend every meal to help cultivate relationships and camaraderie with both the faculty and other participants.

Participants receive the GSCFM Executive Award upon successful completion of all program requirements. Graduation, featuring a special dinner and award ceremony, is held on the last night of the second session. The Best Student Award, selected by the members of the GSCFM class, honors the individual who makes a significant contribution to the general quality of the program, based on class participation and enhancement to the overall educational experience.

To prepare to dive into these topics upon arriving to the program, participants must complete advance-reading assignments. A complete list of advance-reading assignments and textbooks are shipped to each participant in advance of the program.

Attendance at all scheduled class sessions is mandatory. In addition, participation in the discussion of assignments, class activities and projects is required. Between the first and second year sessions, participants will be assigned a project that will draw upon concepts presented in the first session, culminating in a presentation before members of the class and faculty. Failure to meet any of these requirements will endanger the participant’s certificate of completion.

Housing and Meals

Participants, staff and instructors will be housed in one of the residential halls on Dartmouth campus. Although the specific design of each dorm bedroom unit varies, participants will occupy a unit and share a bathroom. Upon request, participants can receive an athletic pass to take advantage of the recreational and workout facilities at Dartmouth, complete with indoor track and swimming pool.

Meals will be served daily at The Hanover Inn, cafeteria style in a campus dining hall, in the dorm or at local restaurants. A photo session and special graduation dinner are held on the program’s final night. Participants are required to attend every meal to help cultivate relationships with both the faculty and other participants.

The GSCFM Curriculum

GSCFM « Apply Today « Application Process and Tuition «
Curriculum
« What to Expect « Instructor Bios

The GSCFM program provides a foundation in disciplines such as financial analysis, valuation, business economics, business law, corporate strategy, treasury management, and international finance and credit.

Session Descriptions Instructors Special Acknowledgement Honor
Best Practice Insights from the Instructors

 

The First-Year Session Concentrations

The cornerstone of the first-year program is financial statement analysis. Complementing the financial analysis program are sessions on corporate strategy, business ethics and presentation techniques. These sessions, adding information about how to operate in a changing environment and how to understand and maximize corporate competitive strategy, bring new ideas and greater depth of knowledge to the decision-making process.

The Second-Year Session Concentrations

During the second year, participants will continue to expand their understanding of the financial side of credit during the financial warnings segment. This segment brings together the elements already covered in the first-year session, providing an in-depth look at credit strategy in a competitive environment, focusing on new techniques for credit investigation and credit granting decisions. Adding to these topics are sessions on the legal environment of credit, presentation skills, advanced negotiations and economic forecasting. Participants also present their projects and have the opportunity to take the CCE exam.

Session Descriptions

Advanced Financial Statement Analysis

The objective of this course is to make credit professionals better aware of the information contained in a firm's annual report and how to analyze it. An improved awareness equates to improved knowledge about credit risk. An emphasis will be placed on the examination of the annual report's statement of cash flows, the management discussion and analysis section, disclosure notes explaining accounting policy and other significant factors. Through a combination of lectures and case analyses, the course will emphasize analysis and interpretation of cash flows, discovery of off-balance sheet financing, and indicators to assess a firm's liquidity. Problems with some traditional financial ratios will be examined.

Corporate Strategy

Strategic management refers to a growing body of knowledge concerning the effective management of organizations in competitive environments. This particular course will provide a perspective of this field by focusing on three broad themes: one, competitive positioning; two, leveraging capabilities; three, harnessing relationships and networks. The course is designed to emphasize the special role of the General Manager – an individual who has risen in an organization beyond his or her functional base and has assumed broader responsibilities for the coordination of different functional activities and the development and implementation of a vision and strategy for the organization. Through carefully selected cases, this course will offer various cutting edge frameworks that shape the students' thinking on managing the strategic challenges of the modern corporation.

Financial Warnings: Detecting Creative Accounting Practices

Generally accepted accounting principles provide wide latitude in the selection of accounting techniques. Their aggressive and sometimes fraudulent application can cause misleading results, even permitting the reporting of profits where losses may have been more realistic. Whether earnings are overstated due to the aggressive application of accepted standards or because of fraud, economic fundamentals will eventually expose the charade. The end result will be a negative earnings adjustment, a likely net loss for the period and often several reporting periods, and a requisite reduction in forecast cash flow. Through a series of short exercises and case assignments, participants in this course are taught to detect and question potential earnings overstatements, the objective of which is to provide sufficient lead-time to permit corrective action.

Ethics in Business and Society

Business ethics involves right or wrong actions taken by corporations and their agents. These actions take place in the context of a relationship between business and society shaped by various stakeholder expectations of corporate responsibility in economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic domains. The ability of managers to respond to these expectations requires knowledge of several areas, including value-based leadership (executive mechanisms for shaping corporate culture), public policy (the role of regulatory agencies), organizational ethics (corporate governance, ethics programs, compliance), business law (Sarbanes-Oxley), stakeholder issues (public affairs, crisis management, issues management), environmentalism (sustainable business practices), personal ethics (moral reasoning), and ethical dilemmas in international business. In this seminar we will consider models and diagnostic tools for recognizing and dealing with ethical issues in a business and society context as well as ethical traditions that shape public expectations of corporate responsibility, including utilitarianism, deontology (duty), justice and fairness, human rights, ethics of care, and virtue ethics. Subsequently, students will apply this material to actual cases, using conceptual tools from the course to analyze select firms and recommend appropriate actions for managers, boards of directors, and regulatory agencies.

Successful Presentation Skills

Whether you're making impromptu comments during a meeting or giving a formal presentation, there are specific techniques to use that will ensure your success. Learn how to overcome nerves, read your audience, project confidence, use visual aids, and recover if your mind goes blank. Every speaking situation will be addressed from handling Q&A to being persuasive. Participants will receive individual coaching, videotaped examples, and group feedback in a supportive, learning environment.

Leading in the Real World

Leading in the Real World addresses the tasks of assuming leadership. You’re now a manager. You’re now a supervisor. So now what do you do?

The Content: The eight hours will be highly interactive and address several topics:

  • The nature of leadership: Remote, removed, imperial? No. Probably not. Involved. Engaged. Participative. We’ll explore the examples we’ve been exposed to and the advantages and disadvantages of each example.  
  • The leader’s roles and the leader’s tasks: What does a leader do? What does a new leader do? And how does a leader balance conflicting demands?
  • The leadership components: What three elements does a leader call upon? We’ll explore these in case studies.
  • The leadership skills: Getting organized. Communicating. Disciplining. Supporting. Solving. Specific skills. Specific lessons.
The Take-aways:By the end of the eight hours, you’ll be able to do things you may not have been able to do before:
  • Be more comfortable in your new role.
  • Explain the reasons for your decisions. Understand—and discuss—the terms.
  • Pursue a well-thought-out course of action in assuming your leadership role and implementing your leadership plans.

Leaders are made, not born. You can be the type of leader the people you serve can be proud of.  

Legal Environment of Credit

Comprehensive knowledge of business laws specific to the field of credit is critically important to each decision today's credit executive makes on a daily basis. This intensive course will focus on a broad range of advanced legal issues affecting the credit decision. This course will encompass a combination of lectures, readings, case studies and interactive discussions to enable participants to increase their knowledge of the complex issues in corporations, partnerships, sole proprietorships, contracts, bankruptcies, antitrust and negotiable instruments as they impact credit decisions.

Advanced Negotiations

All business dealings and transactions, whether small in dollar amount or in the number of products purchased and sold, result from underlying negotiations which are generally memorialized in written agreements between the parties. To create effective agreements, a mastery of negotiation skills is essential, and is attained through practice. This course, through the use of class lectures and negotiation problem solving exercises, will help participants better understand and master negotiation skills.

Economics

There is an old joke that asserts that if you placed five economists in a room you would get five different opinions - six if one is from Harvard. To the person trying to sort out the wisdom of the experts this would seem like an accurate assessment. The fact is that economists are, at heart, philosophers. Their opinions are based on beliefs as much as facts and that leaves the average person frustrated. This course will teach you how to read the tea leaves in the world of economics. We will look at all those handy statistical shorthands and figure out what they really mean. Along the way we will explore the powers that be in the world of economics - such as the Fed and its global counterparts. The intent of the course is to allow us all to become better consumers of economic data and less susceptible to the whims of economists. The class process will be heavily interactive and topical. There will be some lectures but mostly discussions.

Distinguished Instructors

NACM is proud to have secured these instructors in past program sessions. Read more about the instructors.

Wanda Borges, Esq. Susan Fee, MEd, LPC Vernon Gerety, PhD
Chris Kuehl, PhD Charles Mulford, PhD, CPA Diane Swanson, PhD
Alva Taylor, PhD Judith White, PhD


Certificate of Achievement

Participants receive the GSCFM Executive Award upon successful completion of all program requirements. Graduation will be held on the last night of the second session.

Special Achievement Honor

“I believe that NACM is setting the standard for credit management.”

—A 2008 first-year student

Selected by the members of the GSCFM class, the Best Student Award honors the individual who has made a significant contribution to the overall quality of the program, based on class participation and enhancement to the overall educational experience. The award recipient will be honored at the graduation dinner and at the following year’s NACM Annual Credit Congress.

Best Practice Insights from the GSCFM Instructors

Follow the Cash
Charles Mulford, PhD, CPA
"It's the strongest signal we have of financial strength or weakness."

Put Connection before Content
Susan Fee, MEd, LPC
"Whether it's a job interview, client presentation or updating your boss, your audience
has to like and trust you enough to listen to your content."

Make the Transition from Classroom to Workplace
Kurt Weiland
"All training, all discussion, all study is worthless—that's right, worthless—unless it
translates into behavior change and workplace improvement."

Don't Take Negotiations Personally
Judith White, PhD
"We automatically respond negatively when someone is rude or defensive or pushes
our buttons, and we just have to keep telling ourselves that we're going to get a
better outcome if we don't take it personally."

Don't Trust the Media with Economic Statistics
Chris Kuehl, PhD
"Most of what we get is either not very well explained or it's out of context."

Think Critically in Ethics
Diane Swanson, PhD
"Put aside your assumptions and approach scenarios with fresh eyes and come up with
practical recommendations."

Application Process and Tuition Investment

GSCFM « Apply Today « Application Process and Tuition «
Curriculum
« What to Expect « Instructor Bios

  Who should apply:

  • Professionals with a broad range of mid- to senior-level experience in the field of credit or financial management
  • Professionals who aspire to greater responsibility within their organizations
  • Professionals who are committed to creating lasting business relationships
  • Professionals who would like to enhance a four-year undergraduate degree or an M.B.A.

To apply for admission to the GSCFM program, complete the Application for Admission and submit it to NACM-National at the address below. A $500 application fee, made payable to NACM-GSCFM, must accompany the application form. This fee will be applied to the participant’s tuition upon acceptance to the program. Applicants not admitted into the GSCFM program will receive a refund of the application fee, less a $100 processing fee.

To encourage early enrollment, an early bird rate of $4,999 is reserved for applications received by February 1st. After this date, the tuition cost is $5,999. This fee covers the cost of books and materials, instructional fees and use of the school’s facilities, dorm rooms, linen service, parking and athletic passes, three meals per day and beverage breaks. The second-year session tuition is $5,600. Due to programming and facility commitments for second-year students, a tuition refund of 50% of the tuition cost is applicable after December 1 of the student’s first year.

A letter of recommendation from the candidate’s employer or immediate supervisor must be attached to the application form. In addition, a photo (passport, clear digital or driver’s license), and a current resume must also accompany the application form. This information is provided to the faculty in order to help them prepare for the class.

All applicants will receive formal notice of admission to the program within three weeks of application. An invoice for the tuition balance, room and board will be sent following this notification. Payment is due upon receipt; tuition must be paid in full prior to the start of the program.

Application Checklist

  • Application form and deposit
  • Corporate support of a two year commitment
  • Letter of recommendation
  • Photo
  • Resume

Mail completed application package to:

NACM-GSCFM
8840 Columbia 100 Parkway
Columbia, MD 21045-2158

Email completed application package to:

Tracey Flaesch at traceyf@nacm.org

Financial Scholarship Assistance

The NACM Scholarship Foundation, Inc. provides scholarships for financial assistance (partial funding) for first-year GSCFM students. The Professional Advancement Scholarship (PAS) is designed to support first-year students who meet all GSCFM entry standards, and are committed to the rigorous educational studies expected of its participants. Recipients must attend the full two-year program. Scholarship amounts are determined based on need and availability of funds. Please visit the NACM Scholarship Foundation, Inc. web page to learn more.

Refund and Cancellation Policy

Due to the inherent costs associated with establishing and holding this program, no refunds are available after April 1st. Prior to April 1st, tuition fees, less a $500 processing fee, will be refunded for written cancellations. For questions, comments or to confirm administrative policies, please contact the NACM Meetings Department at 410-740-5560.

Dartmouth College is not a sponsor or co-sponsor of the NACM Graduate School of Credit & Financial Management.

Continuing Education (CEU) Information

The Education Department of the National Association of Credit Management has reviewed the educational content of this advanced-level program. Participants attending this program will earn continuing education units (CEUs) each year, all of which are valid for CCE recertification points.

These continuing education units have been awarded in accordance with the standards recommended by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training. The CEU is a nationally recognized unit designed to provide a record of an individual’s continuing education accomplishments. One CEU is awarded for each 10 contact hours of instruction.

Instructor Biographies

GSCFM « Apply Today « Application Process and Tuition «
Curriculum
« What to Expect « Instructor Bios

Wanda Borges, Esq.
Wanda Borges is the principal member of Borges & Associates, LLC, a law firm based in Syosset, NY. For more than 29 years, Ms. Borges has concentrated her practice on commercial litigation and creditors’ rights in bankruptcy matters, representing corporate clients and creditors’ committees throughout the United States in Chapter 11 proceedings, out-of-court settlements, commercial transactions and preference litigation. She is the Immediate Past President of the Commercial Law League of America and has been an Attorney Member of its National Board of Governors, a Past Chair of the Bankruptcy Section and a past member of the executive council of its Eastern Region. Ms. Borges is a member of the American Bar Association, the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Hispanic National Bar Association and the Turnaround Management Association, and is an associate member of the International Association of Commercial Collectors. She is a regular lecturer for NACM and its Affiliated Associations on commercial and corporate law (including ECOA, the Uniform Commercial Code and FCRA), insolvency matters, creditors’ rights issues, antitrust law and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Ms. Borges has authored, edited and contributed to numerous publications including Thomson West’s Enforcing Judgments and Collecting Debts in New York, the NAB book Out of the Red and Into the Black, the BCCA’s Credit & Collection Handbook, the CLLA Commercial Law Journal, Bulletin, Debt 3 and Bankruptcy Section newsletters—including her treatise “Hidden Liens, Who is Entitled to What?”—and NACM’s Antitrust, Restraint of Trade and Unfair Competition: Myth Versus Reality, Manual of Credit and Collection Laws and Principles of Business Credit. She has co-authored The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 – An Overhaul of U.S. Bankruptcy Law, also published by NACM.

Susan Fee, M.Ed., L.P.C.
Susan Fee is a licensed clinical counselor practicing in Cleveland, OH.  She speaks nationally on topics related to mental health, parenting, relationships, professional communication, and conflict resolution.  Her advice has appeared in several publications including the Wall Street Journal, Dear Abby, Family Fun, Good Housekeeping and Real Simple. She is a frequent guest on Cleveland-area radio and TV as a relationship expert.  She has presented for NACM'S Credit Congress, Grad School, and Tele-Seminar series.  Ms. Fee is the author of Positive First Impressions, Dealing with Difficult People, Building Resiliency, and Secrets of Successful Presentations and the college survival guide, My Roommate is Driving Me Crazy!

Chris Kuehl, Ph.D.
Chris Kuehl is the co-founder and Managing Director of Armada Corporate Intelligence. Chris is the Chief Economist for Fabricators and Manufacturers Association. He holds Masters Degrees in Soviet and East European Studies and East Asian Studies and a Ph.D. in Political Economics from the University of Kansas. He has been on the faculty of universities in the US, Hungary, Estonia, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan.

 



Charles Mulford, Ph.D., CPA

Chuck Mulford is Invesco Chair and Professor of Accounting in the DuPree College of Management at Georgia Tech. Since joining the faculty in 1983, he has been recognized 10 times as the Core Professor of the Year and twice as the Professor of the Year by graduate students in business administration. In 1999, graduate students voted to rename the Core Professor of the Year Award the “Charles W. Mulford Core Professor of the Year Award.” Professor Mulford also received the university-wide W. Roane Beard Class of 1940 Outstanding Teacher Award in 2000. In addition to his work at Georgia Tech, Professor Mulford regularly consults with major domestic and international commercial banks and money management firms on issues related to credit and investment decision-making. Professor Mulford has a doctorate in accounting from Florida State University and is professionally qualified as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Florida and Georgia. Prior to joining the Georgia Tech faculty, he practiced public accounting with Coopers & Lybrand.

Dr. Mohan Subramaniam
Dr. Mohan Subramaniam is an Associate Professor of Strategic Management at the Carroll School of Management in Boston College. He has a DBA in Management Policy from Boston University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management at Bangalore. Prior to his DBA, Dr. Subramaniam worked for several years in the Sales, Marketing and Engineering functions of multinational companies including Asea Brown Boveri and Sanyo.

Dr. Subramaniam's research focuses on global strategy and the strategic management of knowledge and innovation. He has published several studies on how multinational companies compete, collaborate, and transfer/deploy knowledge across borders for competitive advantage. His research also looks into different ways organizations leverage their knowledge and intellectual for innovative capabilities. His work has appeared, or is slotted to appear, in several leading journals such as The Academy of Management Journal, The Strategic Management Journal, The Journal of International Business Studies, The Journal of Management Studies, and The Journal of Management. His writings have also appeared as book chapters in Dynamic Strategic Resources, and The Handbook of Strategy and Management. His research has won awards from the Strategic Management Society, McKinsey Corporation, Academy of Management, Academy of International Business and The Decision Sciences Institute. Dr. Subramaniam's research has also received grants from the National Science Foundation and the Carnegie Bosch Institute.

At the Carroll School, Dr. Subramaniam teaches courses on strategic management and managing global businesses. He has also taught in several executive programs around the world for companies such as Telekom Austria, General Motors, Nextel, Voestalpine and Hamilton Sunstrand.

Diane Swanson, Ph.D.
Swanson Diane webDiane Swanson is the Edgerley Family Chair in Business Administration at Kansas State University where she teaches undergraduate, graduate and continuing professional education courses in business and society, professional ethics, and accounting and business ethics. She is also the Founding Chair of KSU’s Ethics Education Initiative, which has received international acclaim. Professor Swanson’s record includes publishing widely on business ethics, corporate social responsibility, leadership and organizational dynamics; serving on editorial boards; holding governing positions in academic associations; and interviewing frequently with the media. She is also listed in several biographical indices, including Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Finance and Industry, Who’s Who of American Women and Who’s Who in Business in Higher Education. Since spearheading a national campaign to improve business education in 2002, she has been invited to speak to several national audiences on the importance of business ethics. In 2004, she received the Best Ethics Educator Award from the Colleges of Business at Colorado State University, the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Wyoming.

Kurt Weiland
Kurt Weiland is president of Jefferson Smith Training and Consulting, an international corporate-training company in Bountiful, Utah (about six miles north of Salt Lake City).

He served for twenty-three years in the United States Army. He was an infantryman and a paratroop commander. He was an Assistant Professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He has a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University, a master’s degree from the University of Southern California, and a second master’s degree from UCLA. He’s written four books on leadership and communication skills.  

Forty-three years ago, he married his college sweetheart, Kathy Lynne Waite. They have six children and sixteen grandchildren.

Judith White, Ph.D.
Judith White is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Her area of expertise is organizational behavior, and her current research topic areas include solo status in groups, negotiations, and organizational and social identity. Professor White has published numerous articles and working papers in these areas. She has been the recipient of many awards including the George W. Goethals Award for Teaching Excellence at Harvard University. Dr. White holds a BA from Indiana University, a JD from Yale University and her Ph.D. from Harvard University.

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