Business Acumen

The message to CLOs is becoming clearer and clearer. Company leaders want them to
align educational offerings with the organization’s strategic objectives. That’s not an easy challenge.
They must ensure that education and communication initiatives reinforce the company’s
goals. They must help employees understand these goals and develop the skills and
motivation to contribute to them.
And at the most basic level of alignment, they must make sure that every employee
understands how the company makes money. That includes understanding how profitability
is driven, how assets are used, how cash is generated and how day-to-day actions and
decisions, including their own, impact success.
Developing business acumen is fundamental to business alignment. Consider Southwest
Airlines, which was founded in 1971. With 33 straight years of profitability, the airline has
become widely recognized for the motivational culture it creates for employees and its
extraordinary dedication to customer service.
Much of the industry has suffered during the years of Southwest’s growth, including many airlines
that have merged or declared bankruptcy. Southwest buys the same planes and the same jet fuel as
other airlines, and pays its employees competitive wages and benefits. What’s the difference?
Contents
In this white paper, you’ll learn:
• The definition of business
acumen.................(page 2)
• How two of the country’s
leading companies used
business simulations to
help managers and
employees impact
the bottom line......(page 6)
• 5 ways business
acumen training helps
organizations survive
in tough economic
times.....................(page 11)
Beyond Financial Literacy:
The Importance of Business
Acumen Training for
Managers and Employees
By Raymond Green
Summary: Training your employees and managers on the concept of business acumen, which means going beyond financial literacy
to a true understanding of what it takes for a business to make money, is the key to producing real results for an organization.

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Unlike some of its competitors, Southwest’s management
team involves employees in the company’s financial results,
explaining what the numbers mean and, more important, helping
to link everyone’s decisions and actions to the bottom line. The
airline has an open culture, one of inclusion at all levels, and
employees understand their roles in providing great service and
keeping costs in line.
Certainly there are other factors that contribute to the
success at Southwest, but it’s difficult to ignore the positive
impact of an approach that develops the business acumen of
all employees and managers so that they can contribute to the
airline’s success.
An Educational Challenge
Unlike those at Southwest, individual contributors and
managers in many organizations today have not been educated
about the big picture of their businesses. They have a narrow
focus on their own departments and job functions and aren’t
able to make the link between their actions and the company’s
success. Multiplied by hundreds or even thousands of employees,
this lack of understanding — the lack of true business acumen
— means that too many decisions are being made and too many
actions are being taken that don’t align with business objectives.
How can training help bridge this knowledge gap? For many
companies like Southwest, implementing learning programs
designed to develop a strong foundation of financial literacy and
business acumen has made the communication of financial results
to employees easier and more effective.
Business Acumen: A Definition
Very simply, business acumen is the understanding of what
it takes for a business to make money. It involves financial literacy,
which is an understanding of the numbers on financial statements,
as well as an understanding of the strategies, decisions and actions
that impact these numbers.
Someone with financial literacy, for example, would be able
to “read” the company’s income statement. This employee or
manager would understand the terminology (revenue, cost of
goods sold, gross margin, profit, etc.) and what the numbers
represent (i.e., gross margin equals total sales/revenue less the
cost of goods sold).
With business acumen, the individual would be able to
“interpret” this same income statement, taking into consideration
how company strategies and initiatives have impacted the
numbers during specific periods of time.
Consider a simple comparison: In football, it’s necessary for
players to know how the game is scored as well as how to play
the game to change the score. In business, financial literacy is
understanding the “score” (financial statements) and business acumen
is understanding how to impact it (strategic actions and decisions).

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Asking the Right Questions
When business acumen spreads through an organization,
employees and managers begin to ask questions. These
questions are directed not only at the organization, but also at
themselves and their departments — questions about processes,
products, systems, staffing and more that can lead to necessary
and innovative decisions and actions.
Business acumen helps everyone understand that it’s not
enough to ask, “How do we cut costs?” or to say, “We need to
increase sales.” Digging deeper, employees with higher levels of
business acumen will ask questions that take into consideration the
far-reaching impact of potential decisions and demonstrate a greater
ability to make the connections between performance and results.
Questions that could get to the root
of disappointing operating ratios:
• Have production costs gone up? If so, why?
• Have we changed prices? If so, how has that affected
our margins?
• Are there any competitive issues impacting our performance?
• Have there been any customer requirement changes?
• If our costs per unit produced have gone up, can we better
control the efficiency of our production or service delivery?
• Is there a way to produce a greater product volume at
the same cost?
• Can we raise prices, still provide value to the customer
and remain competitive?
When questions become more specific, the right decisions
can be made.
Business Acumen
for Managers
Managers at all levels need a high level of business acumen to
do their jobs. Every day, they make decisions about employees,
projects, processes, expenditures, customers and much more
— decisions that ultimately roll up into larger organizational
results. Managers who make these decisions while looking
through a departmental lens only, with a limited understanding of
how these decisions affect financial results or how they are tied
to the organization’s goals and objectives, are working in silos that
can ultimately damage the company.
Managers are often promoted to their positions of
responsibility because of their “technical” expertise. They’ve been
successful customer service representatives, great salespeople,
innovative researchers or well-respected IT professionals. They
are now entrusted with decision making, budgets, projects and
people. They often do not have financial literacy, nor have they
developed a higher-level perspective about the business. Over
time, especially if they move up the managerial ladder, they may
develop these. Or they may not.

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Organizations need managers who operate as part of
the management team, taking accountability for their own
results as well as the results of the entire company. Therefore,
more and more organizations
have built financial literacy and
business acumen into managerial
competency requirements and have
integrated business acumen training
into management curriculums.
Business Acumen
for Employees
Although there is little debate
about the need for managers
to develop business acumen,
organizations sometimes question
the need for this understanding
at employee levels. But frontline
contributors, those who are most directly involved with
production or customer service, for example, take actions every
day that impact business results.
Consider the salesperson who discounts products, or the
service representative who deals with an unhappy customer,
or the maintenance person who notices a problem. The
actions each of them takes might erode profit margin, lose a
good customer or allow safety issues to escalate. Without an
understanding of how their actions impact the company’s results,
they might not have the context to consider alternatives.
Many organizations have
determined that financial literacy
and business acumen aren’t just
for managers anymore. They have
decided to develop a company
of people who understand the
business; who know what return
on assets and return on investment
mean; who know how inventory
turnover rates affect results and the
importance of positive cash flow;
who see the connection between
the company’s financial success and
their own health benefits, 401(k)
plans and more. In other words,
they need people who understand the “business” of the business.
In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins says, “We found no
evidence that the ‘good-to-great’ companies had more or better
information than the comparison companies. None. Both sets of
companies had virtually identical access to good information. The
key, then, lies not in better information, but in turning information
into information that cannot be ignored.” 1
During a business acumen session, new
managers at a major retailer found out
just how difficult it is to make a profit.
Their facilitator used this example: A
warehouse employee dropped several cases
of lightbulbs. The bulbs shattered and so did
the opportunity to make a $25 profit. The
first reaction of the class was, “So what’s $25
to us?” But after calculating thecompany’s
net income at just over 1 percent, they
realized that the store would have to sell
$2,500 in new merchandise to make up
for the lost profit on the shattered bulbs!

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With an increased level of business acumen, managers
and employees can better interpret information, making the
connection between their actions and the company’s results.
Another Reality of
Today’s Business World
A public company’s operating results are well known at the
end of each quarter. Analysts, investors, the media, employees–
everyone has access to a company’s financial results. With a
significantly increased focus on accounting improprieties over the
past few years, senior management has become highly conscious
of the need to provide accurate and timely financial information.
And employees have become much more likely to wonder about
these numbers. “Is my company being honest? Are the numbers
telling the whole story?”
Without a fundamental understanding of financial results and
an ability to interpret them, employees may become suspicious
and, ultimately, disengaged. Disengaged workers, in turn,
negatively impact productivity and profits.
CEOs of public companies, then, must ensure that managers and
employees are able to understand the numbers and have confidence
in them. That means effective business acumen education as well as
ongoing and open communication from the top.
Former GE chairman Jack Welch said in his book Straight from
the Gut, “Getting every employee’s mind into the game is a huge part
of what the CEO job is all about…There’s nothing more important.”
The Big Picture
As we have become a nation of specialists, armed with new
information technology and enterprise-wide operating systems,
it has become easier for managers and employees to become
myopically immersed in their own jobs. This immersion can have
the effect of obscuring their view of the big picture. They may
not consider the cumulative effect of wasted assets. They may
have little regard for the objectives and responsibilities of other
team members, departments or divisions. They may lack the
motivation to invest personal energy in critical project work.
Organizations that engage in developing business acumen
provide a clearer vision and an overall context within which
employees can work, while creating an environment that is more
likely to break down internal barriers. There is less waste and less
ambivalence. There is increased innovation. Employees are more
engaged, they understand their role and its impact on business
results, and they are more likely to believe that their efforts really
matter. They are more likely to think like a business owner.
Think Like an Owner
To be successful, business owners must be able to helicopter
above day-to-day issues and see the big picture. They must
understand how the pieces of the business fit together to impact
profitability and cash flow, and they must be able to assess
the risks and rewards of potential decisions. The best business

6
owners study the numbers, ask themselves tough questions,
analyze their mistakes and take decisive action.
To truly understand the business, owners have to understand
how that business makes money — in other words, how it
produces sales, profit and cash. Organizationally, they know
that it’s about people, processes and productivity. On the
customer front, it’s about satisfaction, loyalty and market
share. Ultimately, every action taken and every decision made in
any of these areas will impact sales, profit or cash.
When managers and employees begin thinking like owners,
they, too, look at the big picture, understand how all the pieces
fit together, and assess risks and rewards. They understand,
like an owner, how the company makes money, how it stays in
business and how they contribute to its success.
The benefits to an organization of engaging managers and
employees in this kind of ownership thinking are obvious. So
how can a company develop the business acumen of its people?
Developing Business Acumen:
Two Stories
Entrepreneurs are generally forced to develop business
acumen on their own. They are hands-on with their businesses
and have to make all the decisions as they go along, whether
good or bad. They either learn from their mistakes or fail.
It’s very different for managers and employees in an organization.
The Author’s Story
In my first business, I sold double knit sport coats out of the
back of my station wagon. I bought them for $15 and sold them
for $30. My customers were individuals and they paid me on the
spot. The business was small, very profitable and the cash flow
was great! As that business grew, I sold larger orders of coats to
retailers; revenues and accounts receivables grew. That should
have worked well, right? Wrong. Retail customers sometimes
took up to 90 days to pay and I learned a painful lesson: Profit
and cash are not the same thing.
My next business involved employees. Lots of them. And I
learned another lesson. Many of my employees thought there
was an inexhaustible supply of money for supplies, inventory,
marketing and benefits. It was easy for them to see the sales
rolling in. It was harder for them to see the costs of operating
a business. So I learned that I’d better share the numbers with
them and get them involved in making those numbers work for
the good of the business and themselves. My signature was on
the credit line, but my employees were on the front line!
In my current business, I continue to educate my
employees and involve them in the business. At the same
time, my company works with Fortune 1000 companies
to help them develop the financial literacy and business
acumen of their managers and employees. I’ve learned that
companies, big or small, need an educated workforce that
understands how the company makes money and where they
fit into the big picture of financial health and stability.

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They aren’t involved in all aspects of the business, and they make
decisions primarily within their own areas of responsibility. Since seeing
the connections isn’t easy, they need to
learn in some other way.
Books and lectures can help. But
business acumen is best developed
experientially. Learners must be able to
analyze situations, ask questions, discuss
issues with other learners, consider
options, make mistakes and see results.
Although there are a variety
of ways to accomplish this kind of
experiential learning, many companies
have found that simulations, which mirror reality and allow
learners to experiment in a safe environment, are one of the
best ways. Here are the stories of two companies who chose to
educate their learners with business simulations.
Comcast Cable
Communications
The NorthCentral Division of Comcast — one of the country’s
largest entertainment, information and communications companies,
specializing in cable television, high-speed Internet and telephone
service — set out to ensure that managers and employees
throughout the organization had the financial acumen required
to make good decisions. A companywide survey had clearly
demonstrated this need — especially for managers of employees
who had direct contact with customers.
For example, if a customer calls
with a service problem, frontline
employees and their supervisors can
issue credits to the customer’s account
in an effort to resolve the issue.
Although this may be exactly what is
needed for the situation, Comcast
realized that employees making these
decisions didn’t necessarily understand
that a $10 credit could ultimately
require more than $100 in revenue for the company to break
even. Similarly, a service technician’s visit to a customer’s home
might cost $50 directly, but the company might have to sell an
additional $500 in services to cover the cost.
“The lack of financial acumen among supervisors and
employees was largely understandable,” says Mark Fortin,
senior vice president of finance for Comcast’s NorthCentral
Division. “Almost 75 percent of the company’s employees are
on the front lines in roles such as call center personnel or field
technicians. They are trained to be good at what they do, but
their backgrounds typically don’t include emphasis on financial
literacy.”
Business simulations are designed
to immerse learners in situations
similar to those that they encounter
in their jobs. Effective simulations
will engage learners through a variety
of discovery learning techniques:
case studies, colorful visuals, team
activities and gaming elements.

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Comcast human resource executives determined that a
fundamental approach to the development of business acumen
was needed. However, this approach also would need to be
fast, engaging and job-relevant. Expanding upon its already robust
Comcast University management curriculum, the executives
chose to integrate a high-energy, tailored learning experience that
would provide the “basics” and, at the same time, deal specifically
with Comcast terminology, concepts and strategic imperatives.
As they participated, learners made decisions about products,
processes, pricing and more, and they saw how those decisions
impacted financial success. In the end, it became easier for them
to make sharper day-to-day choices.
“The thing that sticks out for the frontline leaders, the field
technicians, and the call center supervisors and managers who
attend, is the high cost of sales in our business,” says Sophia
Alexander, senior manager of curriculum and metrics for the division.
“It’s like a bell goes off in their heads when they realize what it costs
for us to earn what we need to earn to run the organization.”
Attending the learning session is not mandatory for
supervisors and managers. However, there is an unwritten
expectation that they will participate in business acumen training
as well as other Comcast University core programs, according to
Jan Underhill, senior manager of leadership development for the
NorthCentral Division. That expectation, coupled with the fact
that manager compensation has recently become tied to meeting
specific financial goals, has kept attendance high.
Senior executive support also has been an important factor in
creating interest and awareness around financial literacy. “Getting
people to sign up is much easier when senior executives like Mark
Fortin are strong advocates for the program,” says Underhill.
Feedback has been resoundingly positive. On average, for
example, Level 1 feedback about the discovery learning based
business acumen sessions has been 4.5 on a 5-point scale. That
means that the program has exceeded expectations. Better than
that, says Sophia Alexander, senior manager of curriculum and
metrics for the NorthCentral Division, is the empirical evidence
that the new insights and knowledge have made a difference.
For example:
• Participant self-evaluations indicate that financial literacy
has increased by at least 25 percent as a result of the
business acumen training.
• After the training, there was a 20 percent increase in
the participants’ ability to use basic financial terms and
concepts on the job.
• Almost 45 percent of supervisory participants report that
they are using their business acumen knowledge in daily
communications with staff and peers.
“Some people, particularly in big companies, feel like there
is an open checkbook. They think … I don’t own the company.
It’s not my problem. Somebody will pay the bills. But in today’s
environment, with some very large companies in trouble,
everyone needs to be part of the solution. Business acumen

9
education for managers and employees helps the company as a
whole, but it also helps employees. It’s about self-preservation to
some extent.” comments Fortin.
Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines is one of the consistently profitable
companies that makes “business literacy” a core component
of its employee training programs. Every employee has a solid
understanding of what a new customer, and new revenue,
means to the company. Employees also know how the loss of a
customer can impact the business.
According to Elizabeth Bryant, director of leadership training
at Southwest Airlines, “Our training covers how the financial ratios
such as return on assets and various margins are determined.
Knowing that team managers, supervisors and all employees have
this knowledge enables the company’s leadership to present detailed
financial reports and explain to the teams where the margins need
to be. Management can speak more in depth to all the employees,
and the employees understand what the objectives are.”
Bryant added, “Because we don’t waste the little things, because
we track every penny and every activity, we’ve all come to know the
importance of each cent. With the pennies in hand, we spotlight the
idea of compound interest– for example, how the small savings help
us by year’s end and how small amounts of waste can conversely
add up to hurt us.”
Consider the importance of a key operating metric for the
airline industry — operating cost-per-seat mile. This is how much
it costs an airline to fly one seat one mile. All the operating costs
are divided by the total number of seat miles (the total number of
miles of all the seats that were flown for a given period, whether
a passenger was in the seat or not). Much of the industry has had
cost-per-seat mile results at or over 10 cents. Southwest Airlines’
cost-per-seat mile is about 6.5 cents. The lowest cost-per-seat
mile in the industry almost 25 years ago was just over 5 cents.
How do they do it? Certainly there are a number of factors
that lead to success. However, one of the key influences is
Southwest’s ongoing training in business acumen. This training
ensures that employees know:
• How challenging it is to ensure ongoing profitability;
making a profit can never be taken for granted
• The importance of utilizing the benefits of the good years
to prepare for the tough years
• The impact of individual actions and decisions to the
bottom line
In other words, Southwest invests in training to help
employees think like business owners. This, in turn, produces
real results, like its consistently low cost-per-seat mile. When
Southwest’s learning team decided to implement a business
acumen simulation several years ago, there was some initial concern
about how well it would be received.
Bryant explained, “Some people, especially those without financial
training, were nervous about the topic. We are such a people-oriented

10
company that we didn’t want people to think that now we’re just a
financially oriented company and everyone will be judged purely on
financial performance. But we positioned the need for the business
literacy training as another way to prove that we actually care
tremendously for each employee. We explained that if you understand
what the numbers mean then you can better understand how your
work provides an integral contribution to the business.”
Southwest Airlines, according to Bryant, has never had a layoff — a
rarity in the airline business. The more their employees understand the
challenges of the business, the better they appreciate the importance
of making smart decisions every day.
Bryant concluded that the discovery learning techniques in a robust
business simulation work well in the Southwest culture because of the
team orientation. “All the participants learn that they can’t individually
make it all happen,” said Bryant. “They learn that they have to look
beyond themselves, act and think like an owner, and realize that our
efforts and financial results here are not just for a career, but for a
cause. It’s this cause-oriented philosophy toward delivering a low-cost,
high-quality service that allows people the opportunity to travel. Our
success at achieving positive results translates to individual opportunities
to work, to grow and to continually think of innovative ways to
improve our business and serve our customers.”
The Classroom Advantage
These two companies chose to develop the business acumen
of managers and employees by using a classroom-based simulation,
facilitated by instructors at company sites.
Although online options were available and were used in some
cases to supplement the instructor-led training sessions, they
decided that there were significant advantages to tackling this
subject in a “live” session where they could leverage the power of:
• SHARED KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE: Learners
bring their own perspectives and issues to the session.
• TEAMWORK: Learners work together, make decisions
together and rely on each other as they learn.
• COMPETITIVE FUN: Small teams “play” against each
other and enjoy a competitive environment.
• COMPANY-SPECIFIC DISCUSSIONS: The learners’
common interest in their own company’s financial and
strategic issues allows for greater analysis and depth of
discussions and a true “connection” between the learning
simulation and the organization’s reality.
• LEARNING MOTIVATION AND COMFORT: Learners
who may not be comfortable with the subject of finance
find themselves playing a game in the comfort of a
team environment.
Although there are a number of educational approaches
available to organizations in the area of business acumen,
classroom-based training that brings together teams of learners
can help ensure that learning occurs and that connections to
the business are made in ways that prompt action back on
the job.

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The Bottom Line
More than ever, successful companies will need to focus on
developing the business acumen of managers and employees.
These companies will realize that when their people understand the
numbers, when they understand how their departments contribute
to the company’s objectives and when they see how their own
decisions and actions make a difference, they will begin to operate as
part of a team rather than in a departmental or personal silo. And a
critical piece of the alignment puzzle will be solved.
With widespread business acumen, companies can have
a powerful asset — educated, knowledgeable and motivated
employees. And with this asset, those will be the companies best
positioned to succeed.
References
1 Collins, Jim. Good to Great. HarperCollins Publishers.
2 Stack, Jack. The Great Game of Business. Currency Doubleday.
Author: Raymond D. Green
Chief Executive Officer,
Paradigm Learning
Raymond (Ray) Green is cofounder and CEO
of Paradigm Learning. Paradigm Learning is a
corporate training and communications company
specializing in the design of business games,
business simulations and Discovery Maps®
.
For more information on Zodiak®
: The Game of Business
Finance and Strategy or to schedule a product demo, call
(727) 471.3170 or visit ParadigmLearning.com.
5 Ways Business Acumen Training
Helps Organizations Survive in
Tough Economic Times
In tough economic times, managers and employees with
business acumen are better prepared to act in ways that
positively affect profitability and cash flow because they:
1. Understand the “story” behind their company’s
“numbers.”(i.e., the impact of economic conditions,
competitive pressures, regulatory changes)
2. Recognize the “realities” of the current economic
situation and how these realities are affecting the
company’s ability to drive revenue and profitability
3. Understand that tough economic times can require
that companies make difficult decisions to remain
competitive and financially sound
4. Realize why specific new initiatives are being
implemented and how they can help keep the
comvpany strong
5. Take actions in their own jobs that are supportive
of the company’s “tough times” strategies

Business Acumen

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