Please respond to the two students discussion posts with a minimum of 75 words per post.
Gary Beecham posted Aug 4, 2025 9:46 PM
In my career in finance, which started when I joined the Navy in 1997, I have worked in many positions that required me to understand both accounting and finance. This type of knowledge has helped me make smart decisions and be able to support the goals of wherever I am working. As a financial manager, I regularly review many financial reports to check on how we are doing financially. This could be by looking for patterns and being able to help plan future budgets. Some of the reports I use are income statements, balance sheets and budget comparison reports. These documents always come in handy when I am doing my daily tasks.
Having access to these reports help me keep an eye on how much money different departments are spending and how much money the company is actually making. For example, I use budget against actual reports to find areas where we spent too much and then make recommendations to fix them. Knowing the company’s financial situation helps me give advice when it comes to planning meetings and when working with other departments on projects that needed my financial input. To add onto that, I try to explain complicated financial information in a simple way so that people who don’t work in finance could understand it. “Complicating the matter is that a significant number of employees don’t know a lot of the basics about personal finance.” (Mayer, 2025) This makes it easier for the whole company to work together and make better decisions.
References
Mayer, K. (2025). How to Support Employee Financial Literacy.
https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/benefits-compensation/supporting-employee-financial-literacy
Cee Harris posted Aug 5, 2025 8:51 AM
Good morning Team,
During my over 20 years as a naval officer, I held various supervisory positions, including division officer (1 tour), department head (2 tours), and executive officer (1 tour on a Special Mission). My division and departments were responsible for real-world operations where equipment was essential to our mission success. The maintenance and upkeep of that critical equipment was vital. Onboard ships, the key stakeholder was the Supply Officer, who possessed the systems and data that provided the ship’s budget, accounting, and finance information; therefore, I did not have direct access to data. Undoubtedly, having that information would have been helpful when ordering necessary parts for maintenance. According to Trombetta (Davila and Foster, 2005, p.1039-1068; Atkinson, 2017, p.43), “Better financial knowledge should help entrepreneurs in managing their business both on the operational side and the financial side”. The Peregrine modules highlight how financial knowledge, even for non-finance managers, is crucial for effective resource allocation.
The primary value of having access would have been the ability to better prioritize the purchase of essential tools and parts. Not having the financial data meant that oftentimes my team and I could not fully justify the importance of our purchases when having to compete against other divisions and departments, which often resulted in delays/denials of our requests. Having a better understanding and access to the ship’s financial situation would have given me the ability to make more proactive and data-driven decisions that would better align with my command’s needs, which in turn would have improved our financial health and operational readiness. This aligns with the idea that access to information leads to better decisions.
SOLUTION
Response to Gary Beecham:
Hi Gary,
Thank you for sharing your professional background—your experience clearly demonstrates how vital financial literacy is in managerial roles. I especially appreciate how you emphasize simplifying complex financial data for non-finance colleagues. That’s a crucial skill that builds trust and improves cross-departmental collaboration. Your use of budget versus actual reports shows a proactive approach to financial oversight, which many organizations overlook until issues arise. Your quote from Mayer also resonates; financial transparency and education at all levels truly empower better decision-making across the board. Great insights!
Response to Cee Harris:
Hi Cee,
Your post highlights an important issue in many large operational environments: the disconnect between those executing missions and those controlling financial data. It’s eye-opening to consider how limited access to financial information can hinder not just efficiency but operational readiness. Your reflection reinforces the Peregrine modules’ emphasis on financial literacy for all leadership roles. If division officers had even partial access or training, it could improve justification of critical needs and reduce resource delays. Your point about competing for budget approval without data is spot-on—great connection between finance and mission impact.
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