You might think accounting is just for finance professionals, but Ed deHaan sees it differently. “No matter what role you want within a company,” he says, “reaching the highest levels of management in that role will eventually require that you can speak the language of business.”

In his course Financial Accounting and Reporting, deHaan, the MBA Class of 1963 Professor of Management at Stanford GSB, teaches all first-quarter MBA students how to read, interpret, and use financial statements strategically. In this short video, he shares five essential insights for informed leadership and fluency in the language of business.