It’s earnings season, and publicly traded companies are conducting their quarterly earnings calls. As usual, Q3 2025 is filled with good news and bad news. While the estimated GDP growth rate was a fairly robust 4%, a lot of companies, especially those that rely on consumer purchasing power, are starting to feel the impact of a bifurcated economy where higher wage earners continue to spend, but lower wage earners continue to struggle.

As a leader in the design, development, and delivery of Business Acumen training programs, I pay special attention to these trends because they influence how we teach financial literacy and best-practice business decision-making. The pattern we’re seeing isn’t just about numbers; it’s about how leaders interpret and act on those numbers.

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Halloween used to be simple. A few pumpkins on the porch. A string of orange lights. Maybe a couple of wicked witches at the end of the driveway to scare visitors.

Now? People are spending hundreds of dollars on 12-foot skeletons, fog machines, synchronized light shows, and animatronic zombies that could give Disney Imagineers a run for their money.

I saw a TikTok the other day where someone asked, “Where do people store all this stuff the other 364 days of the year?” Great question.

But beneath the jokes lies something interesting: Halloween has become a big production. And when expectations rise, costs follow, especially for the one thing every trick-or-treater actually cares about: the chocolate!

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Too often, the easy “analysis” of a profit problem is to say we just need to charge more. It’s a convenient narrative, especially in markets where customers are fighting for every penny.

If you’ve ever sat in an Operations or Finance meeting, you’ve probably heard one (or all) of these lines:

• “We don’t charge enough.”
• “We’re leaving money on the table.”
• “We can’t hit GM% goals because the price is too low.”
• “The customers don’t understand our value proposition.”
• “We discount too easily.”

And sometimes that’s true, but more often, price is the symptom, not the cause.

In large businesses, the real drivers of margin erosion usually live deep inside the cost structure: inefficiencies, unnecessary levels of bureaucracy, poor communications and workflow systems, systems gaps, supplier creep, or hidden operating costs that quietly pile up. These issues rarely show up in PowerPoints, Monthly Reports, or Board of Directors Presentations, but they absolutely show up in the P&L.

Based on years of experience in business acumen, we have identified five overlooked factors that might be eating away at your operating margin (EBITDA) long before a customer ever sees your price tag.

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For years, transactional business acumen training lived in the corner of the Learning Management System, a stand-alone course, often sandwiched between time management and communication skills. However, today, the most progressive organizations are taking a radically different approach to embracing the skills needed to understand and set strategy, and then measure the execution of that strategy through financial reports and performance metrics.

They’re thinking across the organization, treating business acumen not as an isolated skill, but as a critical organizational competency that connects all functions and drives the creation of value for customers, employees, and shareholders.

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“Yeah, yeah, yeah… save the talk about the value proposition. What’s the cheapest price you can give me?”

If that line sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Across almost every industry, the buying process has devolved into a race to the bottom where “value” is measured only in dollars and cents, and where differentiation feels impossible because the customer believes all quality is equal.

But let’s pause and think about that for a moment.

The Kia EV9 Analogy
Take the Kia EV9. In 2025, this electric SUV, priced around $54,000, is packed with features: a long-range battery, advanced safety systems, and technology that would’ve seemed futuristic in 2000. Back then, a car with that level of performance and sophistication would have cost more than $60,000 in year-2000 dollars, and even then, wouldn’t have come close to the quality, reliability, and efficiency of today’s Kia.

The only thing it lacks? A BMW or Mercedes badge on the grille.

In other words, the world has changed. Quality is everywhere. Differentiation is harder to see. And yet, customers are more demanding than ever.

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