Financial management

The planning, directing, monitoring, organizing, and controlling of the

monetary resources of an organization

'Strategic Financial Management

Managing an organization's financial resources so as to achieve its
business objectives and maximize its value. Strategic financial
management involves a defined sequence of steps that encompasses
the full range of a company's finances, from setting out objectives and
identifying resources, analyzing data and making financial decisions, to
tracking the variance between actual and budgeted results and
identifying the reasons for this variance. The term "strategic" means
that this approach to financial management has a long-term horizon.

Investopedia explains 'Strategic Financial Management

At the most fundamental level, financial management is concerned

with managing an organization's assets, liabilities, revenues,
profitability and cash flow. Strategic financial management goes a step
further in ensuring that the organization remains on track to attain its
short-term and long-term goals, while maximizing value for its
shareholders.

Strategic financial management also means that short-term goals may

occasionally need to be sacrificed to meet longer-term objectives. A
typical example is when a loss-making company trims its asset base
through factory closures or headcount reduction in order to reduce
operating expenses. While such actions have a detrimental effect on
near-term results because of restructuring costs and other one-time
items, it positions the company to achieve profitability in the longer
term.