Business Acumen

Course Overview

Business Acumen Training - Leap To Success

This very practical program that gives a wealth of ideas for newly appointed or experienced managers looking to develop themselves and develop deeper understanding about their role in the organizational value chain.

This program and first and most about business acumen which has long been a source of consternation for large corporations. Without business acumen, employees have a difficult time understanding business requirements. Learning business acumen is like studying a new language or riding a bike for the first time unless you actually do it. Business acumen is an almost intuitive and applicable understanding of how your company makes money. It includes a thorough understanding of what drives profitability and cash flow, a market focused approach to the business, and an overall big picture understanding of the business and its interrelationships.

Goal of Course:

Investing in business acumen is essential in driving long-term business results and increasing profitability. Arming employees with a sharp sense of business knowledge not only promotes individual growth but ultimately raises the profile of the organization and gives it a competitive edge. Business acumen complemented with business practicality, perseverance, and vision can ensure a successful and profitable future Managers will gain core skills that they will need to set up a team, provide performance focus, develop strategies, learn new practices and a structured approach to managing their team.

Duration:

 

3 Days


Language:

 

English / Arabic

Training Objectives

  • Understand Business Acumen Mindset
  • Learn & Apply the 5 Essential Elements of Business Acumen
  • Know how to practice financial literacy and understanding the areas influencing the business growth
  • Develop a working knowledge of financial statements and strategy and applying financial formulas to interprets pricing and costing decisions
  • Understand the steps needed to conduct competitive analysis
  • Conduct external and internal evaluations using PEST and SWOT to improve business decision making
  • Conduct Competitive analysis
  • Measure performance using business standards and KPI’s
  • Setting Strategic business goals and develop sense of business judgment
  • Develop a risk management strategy
  • Practice management acumen
  • Understand the impact of change on business and people the steps needed to overcome challenging situations
  • Understand the commercial performance

Module Outlines

Module 1: Introduction to Business Acumen

  • Business acumen definition and its importance
  • The 5 Essential Elements of Business Acumen
  • The Dimensions of Business Issues
  • Business Complexity and Uncertainty
  • Key Stakeholder Analysis
  • Case Study

Module 2: Seeing the Big Picture

  • Short- and Long-Term Interactions
  • Recognize Growth Opportunities
  • Mindfulness of Decisions
  • Everything is Related
  • Case Study
  • Lesson Two: Review Questions

Module 3: Managing what Really Matters (Financial Levers)

  • Financial Literacy
  • Income statement analysis
  • Cashflow analysis
  • Financial Ratios
  • Balance sheet analysis
  • Case Study

Module 4: The Strategic Process and Competitive Analysis

  • Impact of External Change: Competitive Positioning, Technology, Regulation
  • Innovation: Blue vs. Red Ocean Strategies
  • The Strategy Hierarchy
  • Recognizing & Reacting to Disruptive Competition
  • Competitive Positioning
  • Business Strategy Development and Application
  • Conducting A SWOT & PEST Analysis
    • Understanding what a SWOT and PEST analysis is and how to use them as a strategic
      tool
    • Developing Metrics and Tracking commercial Performance
    • Integrating Sales, Marketing and operation
  • Explore the Essential Elements needed to implement a Strategic Plan
  • The strategic impact of KPI’s in organizational context
  • Case Study

Module 5: Value Chain as Strategic choice

  • Definition of value chain analysis
  • Supply Chain Vs. Service Chain
  • Purpose and use of the value chain framework
  • Upgrading at the firm’s value chain level (Improving competitiveness and productivity)
  • Networks of business providers
    • Organizational linkages
    • Linkages between different types of businesses
  • Case Study

Module 6: Leading Change and Adaptation

  • Basics of change management
    • Understanding levels of change
    • Identifying misconceptions about change
    • Importance of change
  • Understanding the benefits of change
    • Identifying essential areas of change
  • Leading Your Team Through Change
    • Promoting successful change
    • Understanding resilience
  • Kupler Ross Change Approach and taking actions to allow the team to move through the transition phase smoothly and easily
  • Case Study

Module 7: Commercial Manager Vs. Business Leader

  • Assessing Sales Executive Performance
    • How to assess all the selling skills of your sales executives using a standard format tool
      and using a clear sales skills development process with your team.
  • Assessing Business Leader Performance
  • How to effectively analyses sales team performance problems and develop effective solutions
    for under performers.
  • Case study McKinsey & Company

Module 8: Building Resiliency Towards Commercial Performance

  • Using Big Data at a Micro scale
  • Value Creation and managing changing customers’ expectations
  • Intelligence and Insights (Competitors Analysis)
  • Changing and Rising Customer Expectations
  • Managing Competitions & Consumer Behavior
  • Moving from Moments to journey (Moments of Truth)
  • Case Study

 

Customized Learning

Leap To Success is offering a variety of learning options to meet current realities and can be adapted to suit your business needs. These options include variants of online, blended and on-site course formats.

Face To Face Learning

Enabling you to have a face to face interactive and engaging learning experiences led by renowned industry experts and thought leaders with extensive practical experience who will employ a variety of interactive learning techniques, including short high-impact videos, case studies, assessments, role plays, in addition to on-going support.

Virtual Learning Labs

Interactive online learning held in real-time using Zoom and are led by international subject matter experts who incorporate case studies, breakout rooms, guided practice, simulations and discussions to maximise your learning experience.

General Methodology

Similar to any L2S training program, this program offers an interactive learning experience in which will allow the delegates to reflect on their learning through an informative, indulging, and fun classroom experience. The design of the training session focuses on the following attributes.

  • Concrete Experience: The delegates will learn by doing
  • Reflective Observation: Reflecting on the newly experienced skill-set
  • Abstract Conceptualization: Developing deeper understanding to the learned concepts
  • Active Experimentation: providing the delegates with realistic tools that can be tested in the real life

Specific Methodology

To effectively execute this program and to ensure that the end result is being achieved L2S specific training methodology in ” Business Acumen” is as explained in the below stages:

The course design is based on interactive facilitation, training energizers, training videos, extensive role – plays, group discussions, group brainstorming sessions.

This course is designed for the full involvement of every participant through the use of:

  • Interactive team activities
  • Skills practice sessions
  • Group discussions
  • Participant presentations
  • Personal reflection
  • Theory input

Activities Brief:

Description: About Air Lift Simulation Game

AirLift is all about coordinating a series of mini-problems in order to achieve the overall objective.
A remote, disaster-struck area needs your urgent help. You arrange an air-drop of emergency supplies – tents, blankets, food, medicines to eight separate villages. Fuel is limited so what’s the most economic route? Eight crates are constructed, packed with supplies specific to each village and labelled. Next is to load the crates into the cargo hold. It’s jam-packed but everything goes in, just! Let’s hope you planned it so that the first crate dropped matches the village below. There’s no spare fuel for re-routing the flight! Having solved all aspects of this tough problem, teams fill in their pilot’s log detailing their route. They can then demonstrate that each and every village gets the right set of supplies.

Learning Objectives

  • Stresses the need to break a task down into component parts
  • Defining how to categorize the KPI’s and knowing what is urgent to do and what can be postponed
  • Utilizing all the resources available and link it to the activities in order to achieve the best results
  • Illustrates the need for a logical approach to problem
  • Shows the need for team members to keep each other informed in order to achieve their KPI’s
  • Sharpens teamwork towards an objective and against a tight deadline

Going for Profit! A full Day Business Simulation Theme

Description: About Going for Profit! Simulation Game

Going For Profit is one of the most successful publications ever. Run a pizza takeaway in the mythical European city of Villeburg. Working in the same market as your competitors (the other teams) you’ll want to win as much of that market as you can.

First you bid for one of the four available takeaways. They have differing appeal so you’ll need to know what customers you want to attract; students, theatre goers? You’ll decide on pricing, product quality, staffing, market research and advertising. You’ll also need a poster and pizza box design! All decisions are computer-analyzed and results, in the form of a quarterly P&L account, are produced. Threats arise (eg health inspections) and opportunities (e.g. should you invest in biked deliveries?). The most profitable takeaway at the end of a maximum of six ‘quarterly’ rounds of decisions wins. Presentations are optional.

The Game is fully interactive so teams can (and do!) steal  sales from one another. They need to identify their target  market and go after it. One team is in the ‘posh’ part of  town, another in the student area and two are in the tourist belt. Decisions come thick and fast on whether to have motorcycle delivery, whether to expand, to diversify and  how to deal with the health scare. Great fun and lots to  observe in how the teams reach decisions and deal with  setbacks!

Learning Objectives

  • Highlights teamwork in action as teams strive to agree on how to run a small business
  • Encourages simple P&L analysis, forecasting and planning
  • Shows the importance of a clear decision-making process
  • Stresses the importance of customers and knowing who your target market is
  • Illustrates the value of close analysis of figures in order to control costs to analyze basic business data
  • Work as a management team
  • To define their target market and satisfy its needs
  • To analyze the competition – but not slavishly follow it
  • To make logical business decisions
  • The importance of advertising, pricing and margins and using the proper market mix

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