Define Financial Management.Discuss in detail the goals of the firm.

Answer:
Financial Management:
Defination:    
            Financial management is concerned with the acquisition, financing, and management of assets with some overall goal in mind. Thus, the decision function of financial management can be broken down into three major areas: the investment, financing, and asset management decisions.
Meanings:
            Financial management may be defined as planning, organising, directing and controlling the financial activities of an organisation. According to Guthman and Dougal, financial management means, “the activity concerned with the planning, raising, controlling and administering of funds used in the business.” It is concerned with the procurement and utilisation of funds in the proper manner.
In order to maximise wealth, financial management must achieve the following specific objectives:
Ø  To ensure availability of sufficient funds at reasonable cost (liquidity).
Ø  To ensure effective utilisation of funds (financial control).
Ø  To ensure safety of funds by creating reserves, re-investing profits, etc. (minimisation of risk).
Ø  To ensure adequate return on investment (profitability).
Ø  To generate and build-up surplus for expansion and growth (growth).
Ø  To minimise cost of capital by developing a sound and economical combination of corporate securities (economy).
Ø  To coordinate the activities of the finance department with the activities of other departments of the firm (cooperation)
Goals of Firm:
Ø  Value Creation
            Value creation is the primary objective of any business entity. It is obvious that most successful organisations understand that the purpose of any business is to create valuefor its customers, employees, investors as well as its shareholders. Profit maximization and increase earning per share is the primary goal of firm.

Ø  Agency Problems
            In corporate finance, the agency problem usually refers to a conflict of interest between a company's management and the company's stockholders. The manager, acting as the agent for the shareholders, or principals, is supposed to make decisions that will maximize shareholder wealth. the management try to make good relations with shareholders and make good decisions that maximize shareholder wealth.

Ø  Corporate Socail Responsibility
            Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a business outlook that acknowledges a firm’s responsibilities to its stakeholders and the natural environment. These stakeholders include creditors, employees, customers, suppliers, communities in which a company operates, and others.
            “Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the responsibility of an organization for the impacts of its decisions and activities on society, the environment and its own prosperity, known as the “triple bottom line” of people, planet, and profit.”

Ø  Long Term Survival:
            According to Rothschild, main objective of a firm is to obtain the stage of long-run survival. A firm having this aim is always reviewed cautiously and all of its decisions are safety-oriented. Such firms do not like to reap larger profits in short-run but prefer lower profits in the long run.

Ø  Sale Maximisation Objective:
            Sales maximisation as an alternative goal to profit maximisation. The firm offers several justifications of sales maximisation as a goal of the firm. Here, sales maximisation means maximisation of the money value of sales. The objective of a firm is one of constrained maximisation where the firm maximises total revenue subject to a minimum profit constraints.

Ø  Stakeholder Theory:

            Stakeholder theorists believe that people who have legitimate interests in a business also ought to have voice in how the business is run. However, stakeholder theorists take contract theory a step further, maintaining that people outside of the business enterprise ought to have a say in how the business operates. Thus, for example, consumers, even community members who could be affected by what the business does (for example, by the pollutants of a factory) ought to have some control over the business.

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