Education | IFT joins Cornell for executive training course

Macau’s Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT), together with Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, organized an “executive development program” concerning financial management in the hospitality sector on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Titled “Hospital Financial Management: Operations Decision-
Making,” the program focused on the application of financial management concepts useful to analyzing hospitality operations. Around 25 professionals from local hotels and mega resorts attended the course, according to a statement issued by the IFT.

According to the education institution, the program emphasized “communicating and interpreting financial data from a general manager’s perspective.”

The program’s keynote speaker was Professor Michael Flannery from the Executive Education Faculty at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. Flannery has managed hotels and restaurants and his consulting engagements include a variety of businesses related to the hospitality industry around the world.

According to the IFT’s statement, Flannery has given numerous development seminars in hospitality financial management, internal control, and operational issues affecting hotel real estate.

The institution said that the program helped participants to gain the ability and confidence to use financial-analysis tools to increase the profitability of certain operations.

IFT has been ranked by the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2017 as the second-best higher education institution in Asia in the field of hospitality and leisure management and the 18th best higher education institution in this same field in the world.

By organizing seminars and workshops, the IFT seeks to share the most updated information and research findings on the sector with the industry.