I believe there has been a major shift in the culture that drives and supports everyday business decision-making.

The big old pile of nasty issues that have presented to business professionals during the past 5 years have included the pandemic, all of the geopolitical issues, the economic issues, the global warming issues, and the evolution of defining “what is work” has created a business environment where developing new skills and learning capabilities through traditional trial and error, curiosity, exploration, and learning from mistakes has been replaced by making decisions with intention. And most of the time intention without a lot of runway for errors.

To support this opening statement, let me explain by sharing a recent quote from a senior-level talent development professional who shared some insights into her mindset when discussing the implementation of a simulation-centric business acumen learning program for a group of high-potential leaders.

I was sitting in on a session with a team of senior leaders as they went through a pilot of one of our new business leadership simulations, "Leaders in Action." Despite being just a 4-hour workshop, it packs a lot of business acumen and leadership activities throughout the experience.

Is it better to be truthful or authentic as a leader?

Is there a difference between the two?

Should one be a priority over the other?

Is one a function of the other?

Before today, I don’t think I would ever have given these questions a moment’s thought. However, after a rich and deep discussion as part of a business leadership workshop, I discovered some great material to share in this blog.

Origin of Conversation

In debriefing a scenario of Accountability in one of our digital Business Leadership simulations, one of our participants disagreed with the feedback we had provided that suggested one of the most important behaviors of a leader is to be authentic. In the context of holding others accountable, being authentic means being natural, engaging in proactive coaching and feedforward, and having an unparalleled sense of realism. Our participant argued that while that is nice and helpful, a good leader must start with a foundation of truthfulness before anything else. She suggested that being truthful is different than being authentic.

One of the primary tenets of Advantexe’s Business Acumen training programs is that in order to be successful, a business must choose an aspirational value proposition for its customers and be the best at it in its market. There are only three different types of aspirational value propositions; Product Leadership (best product), Operational Excellence (lowest price), or Customer Intimacy (best customer relationships).

In choosing an aspirational value proposition, you must then align that proposition through execution which means operational decisions.

And there will always be very hard choices. Do we invest in more R&D or do we invest in more customer service training? The aspirational value proposition MUST be the guide to making the decision. If you want to be the product leader, you must prioritize R&D over customer service as a great product will sort of “sell itself” and shouldn’t have a lot of technical and service needs. Of course, it must be a great product even to have this conversation.

Which brings me to dinner last night…

This week takes me to one of our long-term clients in the defense industry. Now that the US election is over and the new administration is formulating, we are in a different place from a geopolitical perspective. This week, our client focuses on some good old-fashioned back-to-basic financial acumen learning through a customized business simulation.

One of the topics we are teaching is analyzing and assessing their long-term return on equity. Although it has been a few years, I am excited to dust off the DuPont Chain of Profitability as a key teaching tool. I figure it’s an interesting topic to share in a blog.

History

The name of the tools comes from the great DuPont company, which began using this formula in the 1920s, over 100 years ago. A DuPont explosives salesman, Donaldson Brown, submitted an internal efficiency report to his superiors in 1912 that contained the first version of the financial formula and it was embraced internally and at leading schools like Wharton where I first learned about it in the 1980’s.