Skills Library

Business Acumen

What this looks like:

  • Understands company’s financial goals and how various functions within the organization work together to accomplish those goals 

  • Analyzes market and customer data and makes informed business decisions based on research

  • Understands fundamentals of finance, such as cash flow, profitability, key performance metrics

On-the-job challenges

  • Increase your financial acumen. Spend some time increasing your financial literacy. While you don’t need an MBA, you need to have a strong understanding of what drives growth in order to make recommendations to C-Suite and/or create solutions for your own team. 

    • Try this: Reach out to someone on the finance team and ask for clarification if you are confused about the contents of financial reports or metrics. Ask about X and how it fits into the company’s larger financial goals. 

    • Try this: Pay attention to your company’s all-hands meetings. Usually, leaders will provide updates on earnings, show metrics, and announce new financial goals. If allowed, take pictures of the slides with relevant information and review them. 

  • Research and collect data. It’s important to understand what’s going on inside your organization but also to what’s happening in the market. Are you up to speed on the most recent trends and news in the industry? 

    • Try this: Sign up to receive news alerts from sites, such as WSJ, CNBC, Bloomberg. If you’re hiring, check to see if there are layoffs from competitors - get the scoop from Layoff List. (Don’t have time to read? If you have time to go to the bathroom, you have time!) Dedicate exactly when you want to scroll through the news. Is it while you’re in line to grab a cup of coffee each morning or while you’re commuting into the office? Make it a habit to check and read on a daily basis. 

  • Provide business acumen training to your team. You may have mastered this skill, but are your direct reports financially literate? Do they know how the company makes money and how your team contributes to it? 

    • Try this: Set up a meeting for your team and structure the presentation in the following manner:

      • Start by explaining the big picture. Describe the company’s short and long-term financial goals, such as this quarter’s focus and ARR target, how it makes money, and competitors in the marketplace. 

      • Then briefly talk about how each department or group in the company contributes to the company’s mission. Also, how do these teams work together? Include an organizational chart (if you can’t find one, request a copy from HR). 

      • Focus on financial acumen. Provide metrics of business performance, deal summaries, and cash flow reports to illustrate areas for improvement and areas of strong performance.  

      • Provide a recap on the strategic decisions your team has made recently and your team’s focus for this month or quarter. Present the kinds of questions that your team should be thinking about (ex: increase value to customers in X area, increase cross-team collaboration in X area to achieve efficiency in Y).

Resources for more inspiration

Articles

BOOKS

PODCASTS

Videos

 

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