Business Acumen Training Grows Competitive Advantage in Fort Wayne, IN

How does it work?

Our Leading in Business Training focuses on Business Acumen Skills through experiential learning opportunities (better than business simulation training), customized cohort work projects, the collaboration between peers and mentors, business case development and capstone project presentations (a la Shark Tank presentations).

Note: Our programs are facilitated on or off-site for organizations. We do not offer public seminars at this time. While we have speakers and trainers that are available to facilitate and speak at public engagements, we do not offer public seminars.

Objectives

The learning objectives for the program include:

Organizational

• Strategic human resource development
• Align development with the Mission, Vision, and Values
• Increased competency
• Business competency development designed to impact the bottom-line
• Team projects with tangible strategic impact on the business
• Direct observational opportunities between executives, board members, and high-potential employees in support of future leader identification and succession planning
• Development aligned with strategic priorities

At the Cohort Level

• Encourage participants to routinize the sharing of best management practices
• Expose leaders to cross-functional problem solving with minimal risk to the business
• Build alliances across functions that can develop into concrete linkages for future collaboration
• Healthy competition and collaboration, a la “Shark Tank” type challenge and capstone projects

At the Individual Level

The program delivers a business simulation experience with real-work projects for a holistic and immersive, active-learning program. Participant learning objectives include:

• Develop strategic and critical thinking skills
• Develop quality decision-making skills
• Learn how to make a business case
• Gain an understanding of all areas of a business’ operations
• Ensure foundational confidence in financial analysis competency
• Comprehend the importance of strategic agility
• Build financial acumen and budgeting skills
• Develop the ability to ask questions that generate new thinking and solutions
• Set effective team goals
• Practice negotiation and influence skills
• Develop insight into the interconnectedness of business functions and operations
• Collaborate with their team to establish plans
• Presentation skills development
• Evaluate and Improve work processes
• Align organizational systems
• Engage in systems thinking and a continuous improvement focus
• Develop risk management skills
• Understand the builder mindset vs. the protector mindset

Business Acumen is not simply knowing how to read the numbers, but being able to interpret the numbers to make sound business decisions aligned with company goals. Similarly, it's one thing to know the score of a basketball game, and quite another to understand each player's strengths and weaknesses, the statistics, and environmental factors the coaches study to inform their strategy.

Asking the questions, "How do we cut costs?" or "How do we increase sales?" is not enough. Business acumen helps employees understand they must dig deeper and take into consideration the potential impact of decisions and actions. There's an acute awareness that every decision impacts performance. Organizations need managers that are capable of sizing up problems while seeing the bigger picture and thus, marry decisions to the organizational goals. Unfortunately, business acumen is not an inherent skill, nor is it a trait consistently imparted with an MBA, as skilled leaders gain business savvy through practice, application and real-world experience. With the pace of change quickening, companies must proactively develop employees' business sense, instead of patiently hoping their team will gain the skill over time. To address this concern, many organizations have integrated financial literacy and business acumen as managerial competency requirements and offer management development curriculum that instills these skills.

One aspect of Business Acumen is financial literacy, but as indicated above, it is not simply knowing how to read the numbers, but being able to interpret and think strategically about how the numbers inform the business. Financial acumen, one of a handful of business discernment skills taught in a good business acumen training program, is the skill set of knowing how to read a balance sheet, profit, and loss statements and financial projections to make sound business decisions. However, it's also balancing the goal of profitability (fund-raising or cost management for nonprofits / governmental entities) with the company's strategic priorities and organizational values. Thus, there's more to reading a financial statement than meets the untrained eye. Skipping to the profit line is not enough to qualify as sufficient critical thinking. When a leader has spent time developing thinking skills, they are better equipped to formulate strategies that will positively affect the long term viability of the organization.