Business acumen shows up everywhere.

Not just in how you read a P&L. Not just in how you allocate capital. Not just in how you talk about strategy in an offsite. And, not just how you measure business performance.

At a very practical and tactical level It shows up in how you run meetings.

And in 2026, when most work happens in a virtual or hybrid environment, meetings are no longer a “soft skill.” They are one of the most expensive operating systems inside your company.

Think about it.

Every meeting consumes:

• Fully loaded labor cost
• Opportunity cost
• Cognitive energy
• Attention (which has become the scarcest resource in business)

Yet somehow, meetings are treated as “free” or without cost and investment.

As we all hopefully know, they’re not.

The business unit President was energized as he wrapped up a business acumen learning workshop that had run three hours a day for three straight days.

Not because everything went smoothly.

Not because the feedback scores were strong (though they were).

He was energized because the conversations were different.

They were more real. More uncomfortable. More grounded in the actual pressures his leaders were facing every day.

As he closed the session, he shared a few reflections that stuck with me. He talked about how the business environment has never been tougher. How the pressure to succeed has never been greater. And how every single person in the organization needs business acumen and the ability to make good decisions.

Then he paused and landed the message.

“This isn’t optional. This isn’t nice to have. This is serious business.”

He was right.

Business acumen isn’t an academic exercise. It’s not an abstract finance class. And it’s definitely not an “after-school activity” for people who don’t have real work to do. It’s the difference between organizations that execute under pressure and those that slowly bleed margin, talent, and credibility while everyone stays busy.

That’s why business acumen skills are serious business.

Welcome to 2026 and Happy Business Acumen!

In my opinion, there are a few recent corporate stories that offer as many business acumen lessons as what has happened to Kraft Heinz, which I think you will find fascinating and will get your brain back on the business acumen track.

In our business acumen workshops, we teach participants to understand three foundational elements of any business:

• Strategy – How the company chooses to compete and win
• The value proposition – Why customers choose one product or brand over another
• Financial management – The scoreboard that ultimately measures revenue growth, profitability, free cash flow, and shareholder value

Many of our award-winning business simulations are intentionally grounded in reality. They are not abstract exercises; they are built from real companies, real industries, and real leadership dilemmas.

One of the most classic and challenging scenarios embedded in many of our simulations cuts across industries:

How do leaders manage a large, legacy business when competitors are nipping at their heels?

When you are the incumbent, the choices are rarely simple. Do you defend margins or invest for growth? Cut costs or reinvest in innovation? Protect scale advantages or disrupt yourself before someone else does? Every option carries risk, and none come with guaranteed outcomes.

The Kraft Heinz story is not about a single bad decision. It is about years of small, defensible decisions that compounded into strategic drift. That is exactly why it is such a powerful business acumen case.

From this story, I see five critical lessons that apply far beyond packaged products and should resonate with leaders in almost any industry:

A lot of people will wake up on Monday, January 5, 2026, and put “Go to the gym” on their calendars.

Here’s the scenario.

You’re a strong, mid-level manager. You’ve been tagged as “high potential.” And now you’ve been given a stretch assignment: present a clear roadmap to your department for how your team, and eventually the broader business unit, is going to integrate AI tools into the daily workflow to increase productivity and reduce costs.

There’s just one problem.

You’re not an AI expert.

Yes, you’ve experimented. You’ve used a few tools. You’ve automated some small tasks. But if you’re honest, you don’t feel remotely qualified to stand up in front of your peers and say, “Here’s the plan.” Your first instinct is to thank your manager for the opportunity… and then politely suggest that you’re not the right person for the job.

But then it hits you.

Your manager’s response is going to be: “Exactly. I picked you because I want you to figure it out.”

Now you’re on the hook.

You have to make something out of nothing.

And that, whether we like it or not, is a critical leadership skill in 2026.

In a post-COVID world, the companies that win will be the ones that build competitive advantage through leaders who can figure things out. Not because they have all the answers, but because they know how to create clarity where none exists.

Whether you’re developing an AI adoption strategy, rethinking a broken cash-flow process, or responding to a market shift no one anticipated, organizations will continue to need critical thinkers who can make progress without a playbook.

Based on years of experience and what we’re seeing across our business simulations and client work, here is a simple model you can apply anytime you’re asked to make something out of nothing.