OVERVIEW - Business Acumen

Business isn’t what it used to be. Today constant change is the de-facto business environment. The speed of business today is instantaneous. Networks have magnified the complexity of every interaction, every decision, and every transaction. Employees’ actions and decisions are magnified – simultaneously impacting colleagues, customers, network and entire enterprises. The volume of information and communication needed to coordinate and collaborate in this new environment require that every employee understand their part in large networks of commitment – understand how they function as nodes in networks of promises and expectations. Designing strategies for growing, sustaining, and attending to the future viability of organizations today requires every employee see this bigger picture, and see their part, not just as what they do but also how they contribute to the larger corporate intelligence, intellectual property, and value propositions.

While today’s business organizations are more dynamic and complex, the fundamental principles haven’t changed that much - from finances, operations, marketing, and sales to human resources, administration, customer service and technology. This program examines how businesses are organized in the 21st Century - what are the critical success factors, operating principles, styles of management and leadership, business models and strategies, change management structures, and the dynamic of the fundamentals that drive individual and group performance, effectiveness, and productivity.

OBJECTIVES

  • Build business acumen and get the “big picture” of business operations.
  • Understand the interdependency of the organization’s functional units.
  • Gain insight into developing, executing and measuring the success of a strategy.
  • Discover how functional units interact as a result of your decisions.
  • Understand financial data as a tool to analyze and make strategic decisions.
  • Better understand personal leadership.
  • Understand the dynamics of collaboration, coordination and communication.

As a result of the program, participants will learn to:

  • Think from aligning business units within senior organizational strategies.
  • Understand the complexities of unit structures and how each unit's strategy affects other units.
  • Create, participate in, and maintain high-performing teams.
  • Be a team leader or be a team member – the human dynamics of “group”.
  • Coordinate, collaborate, and communicate across business silos.
  • Manage consistent, continuous, and effective communication.
  • Make effective decisions about resource allocation.
  • Understand the depth and range of resources management needs to insure productive operations in today’s business world.