Strategic thinking as a key competence of a financial analyst

A financial analyst is one of the key figures in the activities of a modern enterprise. This is a specialist who examines financial indicators, and uses the conclusions obtained from the results of the study in order to help the company in making business decisions. Considering that a financial analyst, as a rule, has a wide range of professional responsibilities, in order to ensure the performance of high-quality multitasking work, he must have a unique set of professional and business skills that he forms both at the stage of education and later in the course of his work.The main subject of the paper is the description of professional and business skills, which together can be described as the key competencies of a financial analyst. The author pays special attention to the meta-science of strategic thinking. This skill allows a financial analyst to consider any financial tasks through the prism of the commercial success of the entire enterprise, taking into account the factors of the external and internal environment, strategic opportunities and threats. Focusing on the General Theory of Strategy of academician V.L. Kvint, the author insists on a human–centered approach to making business decisions. The use of this approach assumes that the financial analyst is not blindly guided by the task of maximizing the profit of the enterprise at any cost, but first of all assesses what prospects each business decision will bring to interested parties, including staff, consumers, the local community, etc.