Empower Your Team with:

Video Case Study of
an FSL Program for
a Team of Managers

Equip Your Team with Shared Financial Understanding and Language

  • Improve non-financial managers' decision-making with essential financial skills
  • Enhance collaboration and alignment with a shared financial framework
  • Strengthen your managers’ ability to communicate with leaders on financial topics
  • Offer a streamlined, high-impact learning experience that respects busy schedules

Click on the FSL Program that's Right For You:

I'm a Individual
Manager
I Lead a Team
of Managers
I manage
L&D Training

Video Case Study of
an FSL Program for
a Team of Managers

Empower Your Team with:

Equip Your Team with Shared Financial Understanding and Language

  • Improve non-financial managers' decision-making with essential financial skills
  • Enhance collaboration and alignment with a shared financial framework
  • Strengthen your managers’ ability to communicate with leaders on financial topics
  • Offer a streamlined, high-impact learning experience that respects busy schedules

Click on the FSL Program that's Right For You:

I'm a Individual
Manager
I Lead a Team
of Managers
I manage
L&D Training

Video Case Study of
an FSL Program for
a Team of Managers

Empower Your Team with:

Video Case Study of an FSL Program
for a Team of Managers

Equip Your Team with Shared Financial Understanding and Language

  • Improve non-financial managers' decision-making with essential financial skills
  • Enhance collaboration and alignment with a shared financial framework
  • Strengthen your managers’ ability to communicate with leaders on financial topics
  • Offer a streamlined, high-impact learning experience that respects busy schedules

Click on the FSL Program that's Right For You:

I'm a Individual
Manager
I Lead a Team
of Managers
I manage
L&D Training

$14.7M

RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI) per person estimated on average by my graduates from taking my program

34

YEARS TRAINING thousands of corporate managers at hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies on 6 continents and 22 countries

95%

NET PROMOTER SCORE measuring my graduate’s Likelihood of Recommending my program

$14.7M

RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI) per person estimated on average by my graduates from taking my program

34

YEARS TRAINING thousands of corporate managers at hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies on 6 continents and 22 countries

95%

NET PROMOTER SCORE measuring my graduate’s Likelihood of Recommending my program

My corporate clients and graduates

Served on faculty at:

Empower Your Team with Financial Knowledge That Drives Results

In today’s fast-paced business world, it’s not just executives who need to understand the numbers. Senior managers who can effectively interpret financial statements, create accurate budgets and make data-driven decisions are the ones who contribute to your department’s objectives and overall success. But finding finance training that resonates with senior non-financial managers is not easy. That’s where the Finance as a Second Language (FSL) program comes in.

Why Choose the FSL Program for Your Team?

Transform Complex Finance into Practical Knowledge: Our program is built for senior non-financial managers who lack a background in finance but need to develop financial insights to succeed. Unlike traditional finance courses that are dense and theoretical, FSL translates complex financial concepts into real-world applications, helping your team quickly build confidence and competence in their financial understanding.

Proven Expertise and Industry Trust: Led by Toshi Shibano, a seasoned finance educator with decades of experience coaching managers across industries, FSL has become a trusted name in financial education. Toshi’s unique approach demystifies finance, ensuring that your managers can not only learn but retain and apply their knowledge immediately.

Immediate Impact on Business Performance: FSL’s curriculum is specifically tailored for managers who want to contribute more effectively to business strategy and communicate with colleagues in other departments. Empowering your team with the essential skill set will build stronger project oversight, better budget management and the ability to build compelling business cases.

What Sets FSL Apart

  • Clear, Practical Learning: No more generic finance lessons. FSL focuses on case studies, interactive, lesson, exercises and tools your managers can use in their day-to-day responsibilities.
  • Convenient Delivery: Flexible virtual in-person meetings, online modules and practical workshops designed to fit busy work schedules without compromising productivity.
  • Strategic Focus: Beyond numbers, the program teaches managers how to think strategically, positioning them to add value in meetings and decision-making processes.

Your Investment in Leadership Excellence

Choosing FSL isn’t just about developing skills for your managers; it’s about unlocking potential. Equip your managers with financial literacy that can boost your department’s productivity and the company’s overall competitive edge.

Meet Toshi Shibano, PhD

Founder and President
Executive Financial Literacy, Inc.

Toshi Shibano, PhD, has been delivering financial literacy and value creation programs for 34 years world-wide at GE, Siemens, Longs Drugs, and other Fortune 1000 companies.

  • He taught for 21 years on the faculty of GE’s Advanced Financial Management Program.
  • He served for 23 years on business school faculties at Stanford, Berkeley, Chicago and Columbia.

Toshi believes that, when executives fully understand and connect their efforts to their CEO’s financial and value creation objectives, they will make better decisions and create more value for their company.

Don't let a lack of financial knowledge hold your team back. FSL provides the essential skills your senior managers need to excel, helping your organization reach its goals.

What Team Leaders Say:

FSL is designed to provide valuable insights and practical skills in financial literacy.
Here's what team leaders have to say about their experiences:

“Toshi’s program is essential for R&D/Product Marketing teams to align and learn more about financial elements and language. He provides a working template for teams to gather their thoughts and ideas in a very well-organized flow. It allows teams to present to executive management why they need to invest in their programs.”

Jean-Marie Brunet

VP/GM of Product Management, Siemens

“The primary impact of Toshi’s course is it creates greater alignment between teams, finance teams, lines of business in terms of really having a common language around projects and investments. And just being able to accelerate our efforts because of that common language. My newfound knowledge and language will really help to shape some really big decisions. In a business the size of mine, we’re talking millions of dollars of impact.”

Paxton Cooper

Global Head of Product, Zendesk

“Toshi’s class helped everyone on my team to translate the expertise they already have in their non-financial areas (marketing, R&D) into the financial language that I need to make decisions and manage them. His class is absolutely essential to promote that thinking.”

Juan Rey

VP Engineering, Siemens

Book a Free Consultation

Discover how FSL can elevate your team’s performance. Schedule a free consultation to learn how FSL can be tailored to meet your team’s unique business needs.

Inside the Executive Principles That Shape Financially Fluent Leaders

Behind every high-functioning leadership culture is an invisible architecture – an executive operating system that shapes how decisions are made, how performance is evaluated, and how leaders communicate. Most non-financial leaders never learn this system directly. They absorb pieces of it over time, but without knowing the full logic behind it, conversations can feel unclear or unpredictable.

The AAA Framework™ brings this operating logic to the surface.
The FSL® Program teaches leaders how to use it in real decisions.

AAA™ traces its roots to world-class leadership environments, including GE’s disciplined approach to financial rigor, accountability, and value creation. GE’s system produced leaders known for their clarity, disciplined thinking, and precision in communication. AAA™ distills the essence of that discipline and makes it accessible to leaders in any organization.

“Toshi brings a rare combination of global experience and disciplined financial thinking. His frameworks are practical, rigorous, and immediately useful. Leaders at every level benefit from the clarity and business logic he teaches. It’s the kind of capability that improves alignment and decision-making across an entire organization.”
Watch video
Nicolai Eckert, Partner, PA Consulting Group

Principle 1: Value Connection

Executives expect leaders to understand and explain how their work creates value.

This requires clarity on:

  • How decisions influence revenue, margin, cost, or cash
  • How initiatives support broader strategy
  • How choices move the business forward

Leaders who demonstrate this connection are seen as strategic rather than tactical.

AAA™ formalizes this through Alignment.

Principle 2: Decision Logic

Senior-level decision-making is about comparing alternatives and assessing trade-offs.

Effective leaders must be able to:

  • Compare options
  • Quantify benefits and risks
  • Consider timing
  • Explain the trade-offs driving their recommendation

AAA™ formalizes this through Analysis, giving leaders a consistent structure.

Principle 3: Performance Discipline

Executives don’t want lengthy explanations. They want clarity.

Effective reporting answers three questions:

  • What happened
  • Why it happened
  • What happens next

This structure helps leaders communicate results with precision and confidence.

AAA™ embeds this discipline through Accountability.

Example: Principles in Action

Imagine an operations leader explaining a spike in working capital.

Without executive principles, the explanation sounds uncertain and overly technical.

With AAA™ thinking:

“Our goal is to improve cash conversion (alignment). The spike came from three drivers – supplier delay, demand variability, and system timing (analysis). We have corrected two drivers and will mitigate the third in Q1 (accountability).”

  • Same person
  • Same data
  • Sharper credibility

Why These Principles Matter More Today

Organizations today move fast and face tighter constraints.

Leaders must:

  • Make better decisions with fewer resources
  • Communicate clearly across functions
  • Connect work to financial and strategic outcomes
  • Demonstrate accountability in real time
  • Financial fluency is no longer optional.

AAA™ provides the logic behind it.

What Leaders Experience After Learning AAA™ Through FSL®

Three shifts occur quickly:

  1. Conversations become easier.
    Leaders recognize the logic behind questions.
  2. Presentations become sharper.
    Ideas are framed the way senior leaders already think.
  3. Decision-making improves.
    Trade-offs are clearer. Choices are more defensible.

AAA™ Creates Leaders Who Can Operate at the Enterprise Level. FSL® Makes It Learnable.

Financial fluency is not about turning leaders into accountants. It is about giving them the reasoning structure senior leaders rely on for clarity, credibility, and influence.

AAA™ provides the logic.
FSL® provides the path to mastery.

“Toshi brings a rare combination of global experience and disciplined financial thinking. His frameworks are practical, rigorous, and immediately useful. Leaders at every level benefit from the clarity and business logic he teaches. It’s the kind of capability that improves alignment and decision-making across an entire organization.”
Watch video
Nicolai Eckert, Partner, PA Consulting Group

Close

The Logic Behind the Language: Alignment, Analysis, Accountability (AAA Framework™)

Most non-financial leaders believe their challenge lies in understanding financial terminology. They assume that if they could memorize terms like NPV, cash flow, or EBITDA, they would feel confident in senior conversations.

But vocabulary is not the barrier.

The barrier is not knowing the logic behind the vocabulary.

Senior leaders evaluate decisions through a reasoning pattern that is remarkably consistent. Once leaders learn this logic, conversations become far clearer and more predictable. In the FSL® Program, this logic is taught through the AAA Framework™ – Alignment, Analysis, and Accountability.

AAA™ is not a theory. It is the thinking pattern behind financially fluent leadership.
FSL® is the program that teaches leaders how to apply it.

“Toshi brings a rare combination of global experience and disciplined financial thinking. His frameworks are practical, rigorous, and immediately useful. Leaders at every level benefit from the clarity and business logic he teaches. It’s the kind of capability that improves alignment and decision-making across an entire organization.”
Watch video
Nicolai Eckert, Partner, PA Consulting Group

Alignment - “Why this? Why now?”

Every strategic conversation begins with alignment. Leaders must connect their work to:

  • Value creation
  • Strategic priorities
  • Enterprise constraints
  • Financial drivers

Without alignment, ideas feel disconnected and tactical. With alignment, the relevance becomes obvious.

Analysis - “What are our options, and why this one?”

After alignment, executives shift to evaluation. Analysis is not simply building spreadsheets – it is a disciplined comparison of alternatives, trade-offs, benefits, timing, and risks.

Leaders who master this step demonstrate judgment, not just expertise.

Accountability - “What happened? Why? What’s next?”

Executives expect concise, structured reporting.

They want to know:

  • What happened
  • Why it happened
  • What happens next

This structure eliminates ambiguity, builds trust, and keeps conversations focused.

AAA Turns Financial Communication Into a Thinking System

Once leaders internalize AAA™, it becomes a natural way to think:

  • Is this aligned?
  • Have I compared alternatives?
  • Can I explain what happened and what comes next?

AAA™ gives structure to decisions, presentations, and conversations.

Before and After AAA

Before:
Conversations feel unpredictable. Leaders worry about financial questions.

After:
Conversations feel structured. Leaders anticipate the logic behind each question. Executives engage more quickly because the reasoning is clear.

A Universal Framework Across Every Function

AAA™ applies across all roles:

  • HR leaders planning investments
  • Product managers evaluating roadmaps
  • Operations leaders improving working capital
  • Marketing leaders requesting budget
  • Supply chain leaders explaining variance
  • Finance partners coaching alignment

It is the shared operating logic of senior leadership.

“Toshi brings a rare combination of global experience and disciplined financial thinking. His frameworks are practical, rigorous, and immediately useful. Leaders at every level benefit from the clarity and business logic he teaches. It’s the kind of capability that improves alignment and decision-making across an entire organization.”
Watch video
Nicolai Eckert, Partner, PA Consulting Group

Close

Why Financial Fluency Is a Core Leadership Advantage

Most leaders rise in their careers because they excel in their first language – engineering, operations, product, marketing, HR. They know how to deliver results, develop people, solve complex problems, and manage day-to-day performance. But as their responsibilities expand, a subtle shift occurs: the conversations around them begin happening in a second language – the language of value, performance, and cash.

Some leaders adapt naturally. Others start to feel a gap – not in capability, but in translation. They can describe the work, but not always the financial impact of the work. They can explain their priorities, but not always the economic logic behind those priorities. This isn’t because they are weak leaders. It is because they were never taught the logic senior leaders use to evaluate decisions.

This is where financial fluency – the core outcome of the Finance as a Second Language® (FSL®) Program – becomes a competitive advantage.

“Toshi brings a rare combination of global experience and disciplined financial thinking. His frameworks are practical, rigorous, and immediately useful. Leaders at every level benefit from the clarity and business logic he teaches. It’s the kind of capability that improves alignment and decision-making across an entire organization.”
Watch video
Nicolai Eckert, Partner, PA Consulting Group

Financial Fluency Is Not Accounting - It’s Executive Communication

One of the biggest misconceptions is that financial fluency requires accounting expertise. It doesn’t. Senior leaders are not debating debits and credits in strategic meetings. They are evaluating value creation, return on investment, levers of performance, and cash impact.

Financial fluency is the ability to translate your work into the logic executives use to make decisions.

Inside the FSL® Program, leaders are taught this logic through the AAA Framework™ – the reasoning pattern behind how executives think. The framework is not the program itself; it is the thinking model that FSL® uses to make financial logic visible and practical.

When leaders begin to understand this logic – not just the terms, but the reasoning behind the terms – their communication changes instantly.

The Cost of Not Being Fluent

When leaders lack financial fluency, predictable patterns emerge:

  • Explanations sound tactical rather than strategic
  • Strong ideas lose momentum because the financial case is unclear
  • Cross-functional alignment breaks down
  • Leaders feel confident in their work, but not in how to communicate it

This has nothing to do with capability. It has everything to do with fluency

Three Leadership Advantages of Financial Fluency

1. Clearer, More Strategic Communication

Leaders who understand executive logic begin to speak in terms that matter:

  • How this creates value
  • What drivers are affected
  • What alternatives were considered
  • Why this choice is strongest

AAA™ reinforces clarity and alignment.

Three Leadership Advantages of Financial Fluency

2. Greater Influence in Senior Meetings

Executives make decisions based on logic, trade-offs, and expected returns. Fluent leaders gain influence not by talking more, but by speaking the language leaders already use.

Three Leadership Advantages of Financial Fluency

3. A Broader Enterprise Perspective

Fluency allows leaders to see how all parts of the business connect:

  • Operations and working capital
  • Pricing and margins
  • Staffing and cash
  • Investments and value

FSL® and AAA™ shift leaders from functional operators to enterprise thinkers.

A Simple Example of the Shift

Before fluency:
“We need to hire two more people.”

After fluency:
“We evaluated three approaches. The recommended option protects margin, supports growth, and pays back in six months.”

Same work. Different credibility.

Immediate, Practical Career Impact

Leaders consistently report:

  • Shorter, clearer conversations
  • Less resistance to proposals
  • Better cross-functional collaboration
  • More engagement from senior leaders

Financial Fluency Is Now a Leadership Requirement

Organizations expect leaders at all levels to:

  • Frame decisions through value
  • Explain returns
  • Anticipate constraints
  • Communicate impact

FSL® builds the fluency. AAA™ provides the logic.

“Toshi brings a rare combination of global experience and disciplined financial thinking. His frameworks are practical, rigorous, and immediately useful. Leaders at every level benefit from the clarity and business logic he teaches. It’s the kind of capability that improves alignment and decision-making across an entire organization.”
Watch video
Nicolai Eckert, Partner, PA Consulting Group

Close

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