How Does Corporate Finance Differ From Investment Banking

Corporate Finance and Investment Banking, both form very essential divisions of any firm, dealing in the field of Finance. According to Investopedia, the most basic difference between these two is, that Corporate Finance deals with the management of a company’s finances, whereas Investment Banking deals with the financial growth of the company. Regardless of their differences, it has been seen that these two fields make for great, promising careers for finance aspirants. A professional working in either of these fields, has to deal with similar kind of challenges and prospects. Corporate Finance, is like a blanket term, used to refer to all things finance, including every vertical that deals with financial activities. In a very broad sense, Investment Banking can also be called a type of corporate finance, which makes their differentiation slightly difficult. While corporate finance can be used more like a general term, Investment Banking is a more of a niche concept.

Have you been on #LinkedIn, looking for some good insights on the #Finance industry, yet stumped on where to it is? https://t.co/Z9dr5MuxJL— Imarticus Learning (@imarticus) October 29, 2016

The field of corporate finance, is concerned with all the day-to-day financial activities of a firm. The main objectives herein are, to take decisions regarding investments, raising capital, maximizing the value of the company, distributing the resources throughout, issuing of securities, analyzing and identifying areas, where it would be necessary to raise capital. Investment Banking, by and large deals with the process of making a firm grow. This is done mainly through, the process of mergers and acquisitions, issuing of securities and various other functions, through which the capital can be raised. Investment Bankers are the professionals, who carry out these activities for a firm and are hired for their specialized knowledge and approach. Investment Bankers are known for their abilities to steer a company out of financial turmoil on to calm waters, this why in spite of being a sub-field, Investment Banking is still considered to be a separate field.

The education requirement for Corporate Finance is a background in either economics, business, or any other finance related field. A degree in accounting makes for a lot in this field due to the nature of the job. As this field covers a lot of job profiles, the skills required here are, good analytical abilities, thorough knowledge about corporate theory, financial analysis, strong communications skills and familiarity with other related concepts of finance. Investment Banking requires a more specific set of skills, but a base in finance, investments and other areas is expected. A lot of Investment Bankers complete their MBA degrees and a few other certification courses, which gives them expert knowledge about the field of Investments. Lately a lot of companies have begun looking for candidates with exceptional resumes, which is the reason for the increasing number of people doing certification courses.

There are eminent institutes like, Imarticus Learning, which offer certification programs specializing in both of these field. Their courses are available both in the classroom as well as online format and can be done by professionals who already have a job. While both of these fields are equally challenging and rewarding, Investment Banking has become a front-runner choice for a career in finance; while on the other hand, Corporate Finance offers a variety in terms of career roles. Differences apart, both the fields have great perks and opportunities to offer.

Imarticus Learning Webinar: Demystifying Analytics Careers

Imarticus is excited to invite you to our Webinar on careers in Analytics on September 27th.

 Harvard Business Review has called the Data Scientist, the sexiest IT career you can have. But what exactly do Data Scientists do? What is Data analytics? Is it just picking through numbers? But I was terrible at Math and Science in school!

 According to this article in the Harvard Business Review – More than anything, what data scientists do is make discoveries while swimming in data. It’s their preferred method of navigating the world around them. At ease in the digital realm, they are able to bring structure to large quantities of formless data and make analysis possible. They identify rich data sources, join them with other, potentially incomplete data sources, and clean the resulting set. In a competitive landscape where challenges keep changing and data never stop flowing, data scientists help decision makers shift from ad hoc analysis to an ongoing conversation with data.

 If you are still grappling for answers, then join our webinar, which demystifies this fascinating career path, and answers questions like what do data analysts do actually? What tools do they use? Where can I study it? Why is the Imarticus Learning Program in Data Analysis the most respected program in the country for Data Analytics? And the most burning question of all, what am I going to earn when I finish the program? Our industry experts will be on call to counsel you on which path to take and will fill you in on all the latest trends.

Imarticus Learning courses focus on the tools and techniques needed to excel in the competitive analytics landscape. What are the differences between our dedicated programs for R, SAS and Python?

Our speakers are Mr Mohan Rai, Director at S & R Analytics, involved in Delivery of Analytics Consulting/Training solutions and SIP Partners for TCS. He is a visiting faculty at several Universities and colleges, and is regularly invited as a panelist on Analytics conferences. Mohan has 8 years of experience in Core Analytics (Sales & IT). He holds degrees in Business Analytics and Intelligence from IIM-Bangalore, MBA in Marketing and BSC in Statistics.

Joy Parekh is Assistant Vice President at Imarticus and helped initiate the Online Learning vertical. Presently, he manages a 20-member team across Online Business Development, Product and Governance functions within Imarticus Learning. His exposure to both the start-up and the corporate world will be instrumental and can offer valuable insights to aspirants to kick-start their careers in Data Analytics.

Here’s what Jasmine had to say about our previous webinar on Data Analytics Careers –

Understanding the difference between Data Analytics and Data Science was always confusing, but this webinar helped. I learned a lot from Mr Vishal as he gave a lot of tips on how to get into analytics ”

 For more information please register here. Limited spots available.  http://imarticus1.viewpage.co/imarticuslive_sep27

Source: http://imarticus.org/careers-webinar-demystifying-analytics-careers

Disruptive Innovations in Financial Services

Disruptive innovation in Financial Services is having the greatest impact where the delivery is happening through business models which are platform based, light on capital & data & analytics intensive .This is making the industry very innovation focused and competitive as it gears up to provide its customers with upgraded, digitally intensive solutions across business lines such as banking, payments, cards, investment management and many more.

A few central themes emerge in this area and are summarized as follows:

Infrastructural Streamlining

Advanced emerging platforms and decentralized technologies have changed the way information is aggregated & analyzed, improving connectivity and accessibility while reducing the cost & time for accessing information and providing financial solutions across geographies.

Automation

Firms are increasingly relying on and leveraging advanced algorithms and computing power to automate manual activities ,allowing them to offer cheaper, swifter & scalable products and services to clients.

Role of Intermediaries

Latest innovations are changing or eliminating the role of traditional institutions as intermediaries, and offering lower prices and / or higher returns to customers

The Strategic Role of Data

Financial institutions are accessing new data sets like social data, customer online behavior & likes , which is redefining ways in which they are  understanding customers and markets. It helps them to customize and offer bespoke offerings as per client requirement versus generic cookie cutter solutions.

Niche, Customized Products

With extensive availability of customer related data a lot of the financial institutions ,especially the new entrants are creating highly targeted products and services with deep & complex specializations, hence increasing competition and creating pressure for the traditional end-to-end financial services model to unbundle

Customer Empowerment

In this flat world with high end technology & emerging innovations, customers now have access to previously restricted assets and services, more visibility into products and their features and benefits and hence a heightened ability to make intelligent,need based choices making them “prosumers”