Business Acumen

What is business acumen?

“The ability to take a ‘big picture’ view of a situation, to weigh it up quickly, make a logical, sound decision confidently, and influence others to agree with you in order to have a positive impact towards achieving the objectives of the organisation.”

It is a combination of knowledge and skill informed by experience. 

The knowledge, skills and abilities include:

• Financial literacy - The ability to understand how an organisation uses its resources to achieve its desired outcome. In a commercial context this is often measured in terms of profit or revenue, in other organisations the key measure for success might be improved capacity or measurable social benefits.
• Organisational knowledge – Knowledge about the organisation in which the individual works. What are the relevant procedures and processes? How can they get things done?
• Ability to deal with ambiguity - In many cases it is impossible to know everything relevant to a situation. Each individual must decide when the information available is sufficient to move forward.
• Ability to link cause and effect - Both in a financial sense (e.g. 10% discount means we will not make a profit) and in a personal sense (e.g. if we don’t complete this forecast accurately, our boss will not secure the resources we need next year.)
• Self awareness. How will an individual’s actions and decisions impact on the organisation and the other people in it?
• Stakeholder awareness. - What are the stakeholder’s interests and needs, and how do decisions made within the organisation impact upon them?
• Contextual knowledge – The ability to relate what happens outside an individual’s immediate environment to situations in the work place. For senior managers this will involve looking at the wider external landscape. For supervisors it means knowing about the changes happening within their own organisation.

For more information see -

Business simulation games to build Business Acumen
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