Building Business and Commercial Acumen Training Course

Why select this training course?

Commercial acumen is the ability to understand and navigate the business world: from the market conditions that affect a company’s performance to the regulations that impact an organization’s decision-making. It involves understanding how a company’s market and environment affect its performance and the ability to respond when those conditions change. Above all, it is the ability to understand what a company needs to do to succeed. Commercial acumen involves knowing how to map out the context of a situation, so you can make informed decisions when they become necessary.

Business or commercial acumen entails being able to sense what’s happening around you and respond quickly when needed. It also means being able to articulate those needs—and having the ability to translate those needs into action. With the right level of understanding, anticipating change can be a powerful tool for business success. To be agile and responsive, organizations need to be able to rapidly adapt internally and externally. Organizations that can do this well will find more opportunities, achieve more success and help shape the future of their industries.

The key elements of commercial acumen are planning, operations, finance, and strategy, each representing a distinct facet of the business. Combined, these components enable an organization to adapt to opportunities and problems that emerge in the market. The ideal strategy to develop business savvy is to take the time to comprehend how each of these components functions.

Why does business acumen matter?

Without business acumen, a company cannot effectively compete in today’s environment. It helps companies make better decisions, solve problems, and act strategically. It’s not as simple as being able to call your shot; it means understanding the interplay of systems and being able to predict change coming around the bend. In other words, spotting an opportunity when you see one and seeing the connection between all variables are required to gain a competitive advantage in the market.

Whether you’re an individual in a small business looking to expand, or a Fortune 500 senior executive, you need to understand the business world and market dynamics. To be successful, you must master the details of your organization, positioning yourself as a strategic asset for your employer and the wider marketplace. And what better way to do that than with a course from Rcademy? Rcademy’s Building Business and Commercial Acumen Training Course has been designed primarily for government and private professionals interested in understanding what the company expects of them and how they are supposed to interpret their responsibilities. The course has been designed to provide context and background knowledge so that participants can begin to understand how the different business functions relate to one another and how external forces affect them. The course aims to turn the participant into a business-savvy professional.

Who should attend?

The course is apt for everyone in the corporate sector as it imparts diverse skills valuable to professionals from all fields:

• Senior executives and Policy Makers
• Departmental Heads and Managers
• General Managers
• Business Analysts
• Business Planners
• Project Managers and Leaders
• Start-up Founders
• Entrepreneurs

What are the course objectives?

Rcademy’s Building Business and Commercial Acumen is designed to achieve the following objectives:

• To develop a deep understanding of the business world
• To understand the interplay of various elements within an organization
• To understand how a company’s internal and external environment affects business performance
• To instill the virtue of flexibility in business actions
• To analyze and interpret different business situations and deal with them in a manner fruitful to the organization
• To be proactive in decision making
• To spot emerging opportunities in the market and take first mover advantage
• To develop financial acumen for sound financial decision-making
• To learn ways to demonstrate business acumen in the organization

How will the course be presented?

• Interactive sessions
• Use of case studies
• Management games
• Learning preparation of reports, charts, graphs
• Real-time exercises
• Problem-solving and Group discussion sessions

What are the topics covered?

Module 1: What is Business Acumen and Why it Matters?

• Defining Business Acumen
• Looking at the big picture
• Who needs it?
• How can it be developed?
• Benefit to the organization
• Elements of business acumen

Module 2: Business Acumen for Managers

• Business acumen for managerial decision-making
• Managers with the tunnel view
• Identifying factors of profitability
• Detecting risk

Module 3: Business Acumen for Leaders

• Distributed leadership
• Experimentation and taking risks
• Strategic thinking
• Problem-solving
• Effective communication

Module 4: Understanding the Market

• Developing contextual and situational awareness
• Understand your customers
• Competitor analysis
• Understanding the business environment
• Knowing market trends

Module 5: Developing Business Acumen

• Enhancing financial literacy
• Understanding the business model
• Stakeholder awareness
• Keeping up with the trends
• Perceptual and decision-making skills
• Self-awareness

Module 6: Financial Acumen

• Financial basics
• Understanding budgets and budgeting
• Return on investment analysis
• Evaluating risk and return
• Interpretation of financial statements

Module 7: Innovation for Organisational Growth

• Disruptive and incremental innovation
• Creating an innovation culture
• Engaging with the audience
• Creating an ideal platform
• Enterprise innovation scouting
• Trend forecasting

Module 8: Identification and Creation of Opportunity

• Stakeholders and related opportunity
• First mover advantage
• Types of business opportunity
• Customer Research
• Market hypothesis method

Module 9: Assessing Business Performance

• Key performance indicators
• Performance metrics
• Customer satisfaction as a metric
• Employee satisfaction

Module 10: Strategic Acumen

• Going forward strategy
• Gap analysis
• Strategic thinking
• Creating strategic stretch

Module 11: Anticipating Change

• Developing foresight
• Evaluating the culture
• Looking for evidence for upcoming changes
• Being flexible to change