Business acumen
Our Business Acumen & Strategy for Managers (and Leaders) Training and Development Program includes:
- Skills training
- Real work projects
- Shark-Tank-like* presentations
- Training on key business and financial acumen competencies
- Cross-functional project teams
- Group coaching
- Presentation coaching
- Mentor participation
- Facilitated collaboration
- Active learning
- Expert facilitation and training
- Top-down support in a manageable format
- More than business simulation
- Business case preparation and presentations
- One-on-one coaching
Click to download our Program Brochure
We manage all aspects of the corporate acumen development program and work with your internal sponsors to guarantee best-practices and to provide objective oversight to ensure a seamless, effective program that produces results.
Call us for a complimentary consultation at 281-469-4244 or contact us via email. We look forward to learning more about your organizational development goals.
Effective leaders must be able to piece together, quickly, complex factors, some, to the untrained eye, may even seem insignificant, to craft a composite perspective. Critical thinking skills enable a leader to consider the economic, environmental, regulatory, historical, competitive, financial, and other factors influencing the business. The ability to understand the compound effect of different elements and not get bogged down in a sea of ambiguity is a skill that can be developed.
It’s a challenging prospect for many, to make quality decisions and make them quickly, without knowing, with certainty, all the facts. However, since there will never be a time when a leader has a crystal ball, by developing business and financial acumen thinking skills, leaders are more adept and can quickly and strategically think through options and with well-trained instincts make wise decisions.
Not sure if an isolated business acumen training is what your team needs? Check out our strategic planning program, which develops business and financial acumen while producing strategic alignment.
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Commercial Acumen Training
Our comprehensive program deploys adult-learning best practices and includes:
- Skills training
- Coaching
- Peer-to-peer sharing and teaching
- Mentors
- Capstone projects
- Business-case analysis
- Mock investor panel presentations
- Better than business simulation competition
Looking for strategic planning consultants or business unit strategy consulting? See also our assessment based strategic alignment program which builds business acumen while building your corporate, non-profit, or business unit strategic plan.
Furthermore, we scope your company’s business acumen training according to your budget and logistical requirements. Thus, we have a la carte training and coaching components from which to choose. The ideal program occurs over the course of six to 12 months, with regular touch-points and activities to ensure active-learning, behavior modification, and maximum learning retention and, our modular approach means we can adapt to your company’s specific requirements.
The program moves employees beyond theory into the practice and embodiment of the business acumen competencies.
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Thinking & Examination Skills:
- Strategic planning and strategic thinking
- Critical thinking and scrutiny
- Data exploration and analysis
- Holistic thinking
- Sound judgment
- Quality decision making
- Analytical thinking
Financial Acumen Skills:
- Budgeting
- Finance for non-finance managers
- Developing a passion for understanding the numbers
- Understanding Pro-forma, balance sheet, financial statements, profit/loss, income statements, cash flow statements, and revenue forecasts
- Investment analysis
- Risk analysis & risk management
- Cost controls
Business Case Analysis:
- How to make a persuasive business case
- Problem-solving
- The art of influence
- Dealing with ambiguity
- Strategic foresight
- Business savvy
Distinguishing Attributes:
- Executive presence
- Impact and Influence
- Perspective
- Presentation skills
- Negotiation skills
Other Competency Options:
Pending program scope and budget, additional competencies and business acumen topics may be added, including:
- Global business knowledge
- Cross-cultural intelligence
- Managing change
- Leading Innovation
- Informing
- Performance management
- Developing others
- Persuasion
- Building collaborative relationships
- Diagnosing problems
- Conceptual thinking
- Forward thinking
- Driving results
- Entrepreneurial mindset
- Hardiness
- Decisiveness
- Interpersonal effectiveness
- Conflict management
- Getting work done through others
- Team building
- And more...
Customized Better-Than-Business Simulation Training & Strategic Thinking Training & Development Objectives:
Training Objectives at the Institutional Level
- Strategic HR improvement
- Mission, Vision, and Values alignment
- Competent workforce
- Business proficiency
- Aligned employee development
- Team projects with real strategic Impact on the business
- Effective succession planning and candidate visibility
- Networking opportunities between levels
- Emerging leaders visibility: opportunities to observe high-performers and undiscovered super-stars “in-action”
- Cascade strategic priorities
- Foster strategic clarity throughout the organization
Training Objectives at the Cohort Level
- Develop business Acumen skills
- Financial acumen training
- Leaders / High-Potential employees learn to routinize critical and strategic thinking
- Cohorts develop alliances across the company
- Corporate acumen development
- The embodiment of management best-practices
- Collaborative, problem-solving - “hands in the mix” opportunities
- Hearty competition and cooperation
- Heightened engagement and enthusiasm for the business of the business
- Better than business simulation competition training experience
- Business strategy simulation-like Experiential learning
- Fun matters - Shark-Tank-like* presentations and capstone projects are exciting
Training Objectives at the Individual Level
The program delivers a better-than-business-simulation learning experience with real-work projects and co-creative opportunities for competency development. Curriculum and learning objectives include:
- Understand the business of the business and all business operations
- Critical thinking and strategic thinking capability
- Develop quality decision-making skills
- Learn influence, flexibility, compromise and the art of effective sales-influence
- Explore the importance of strategic agility
- Risk analysis and risk management skills
- Grow capacity to make quality decisions
- Intentional innovation and co-creative exploration of real business solutions
- Learn budgeting techniques
- Develop financial acumen foundations
- Understand the builder mindset vs. the protector mindset
- The art of creative curiosity and questioning
- Problem-solving experiences
- Learn to set and measure effective team goals
- Negotiation practice
- Strategic planning skills
- Professional presentation and persuasion
- Focus on the evaluation and improvement of work processes
- Learn and understand the business’ organizational systems
- Engage in systems thinking
- Foster a commitment to continuous improvement
Leadership Development Competency Categories
There are three critical areas that companies must develop within each leader for high-performance.
The FIRST we call “Leading Self,” which includes competencies such as emotional intelligence, organization, time management, self-awareness, the ability to prioritize, manage perceptions and emotions, creativity, and deal effectively with conflict, etc.
The SECOND area we call “Leading Others” which includes competencies such as interpersonal effectiveness, impact, and influence, managing up, command skills, compassion, managerial courage, directing others, developing others, ability to build a team, etc.
The THIRD area we call “Leading in Business” which includes competencies such as problem-solving, business and commercial acumen, thinking strategically, critical thinking, financial understanding, dealing with ambiguity, risk management, global business knowledge, strategic agility, ability to make a business case, effective presentation skills, etc.
See also our leadership development for high-potential leaders brochure.
FAQ:
What are the logistics and delivery formats of the program?
What are the components of the program?
What's the optimal format and logistical structure?
For more FAQ, visit our Business Acumen FAQ page here.
Call us today to learn more about our Developing Strategic Management Skills Training and Development programs and to learn how our commercial and financial acumen training may improve your team’s strategic competency!
What makes us the Business Acumen Training & Business Simulation Competition Experts?
TurnKey Coaching & Development Solutions (founded in 2004), has experienced management consultants, executive coaches and master trainers in every major metropolitan area in the USA and key hubs globally.
Through a single-point-of-contact, we provide full-service, LSO (learning services outsourcing) and make your employee development goals easier to obtain. From instructional design to implementing best-practices, to recommending strategic revisions, our clients tell us that we take the pain out of managing employee development programs. Our “turnkey” processes and objective oversight eliminate initiative overload and help your team to refocus on the business of the business instead of managing vendors.
Our on-site/off-site employee development programs are tailored enough to be relevant and meaningful to your industry while leveraging our off-the-shelf curriculum for an affordable and effective solution. We employ adult-learning best-practices and our proven curriculum, coupled with key-stakeholder interviews, your strategic goals, and industry research, for a unique and practical training and development program.
Our Services:
- Level & budget appropriate Coaching Programs including executive, mid-level, global leadership, HiPos, and Performance Improvement programs
- Training Programs: 400+ topics
- High-Potential Development Programs: Including Comprehensive Leadership University and Succession Planning components
- Assessments: Psychometric Assessments, 360 feedback (qualitative and quantitative) and Hiring Assessments
- Engagement, HR & Culture Surveys such as the Leadership Circle Culture Survey
- Strategic Planning Consulting & Retreats: data-driven strategic analysis and planning programs
- Organizational Development Consulting Services
- Capstone Projects: business strategy simulations and business simulation competition
Disclaimer: Shark-Tank-Like* We are not associated in any way with the television show. We think it’s an awesome show and use the verbiage “shark-tank-Like” because it accurately describes how our final capstone, business simulation competition, and business strategy simulation presentations are experienced by our clients. SHARK TANK is a trademark of Sony Pictures Television Inc. and is not associated in any way with this company or program.