Building Business Acumen Skills for Everyone

In today’s business environment, having the right business acumen is no longer optional, it’s mandatory. Understanding the core drivers of business success allows individual contributors and leaders to make informed decisions, align their actions with the strategy, and drive the results that you have promised to your employees and shareholders.

Business acumen matters because it builds the bridge between an organization’s strategy, its goals, market realities, and operational execution. It enables employees, managers, and leaders to:

• Understand the “whys” behind decisions.
• Drive alignment across teams and functions.
• Anticipate market shifts and respond proactively.
• Use financial insights to make smarter choices.

Deliver on customer expectations while maintaining operational efficiency. Read More >

Welcome to Part 2 of '25 Business Issues to Think About in 2025'!In Part 1, I explored some of the most pressing challenges and opportunities businesses will face in the coming year, ranging from AI integration and workforce upskilling to sustainability and geopolitical instability. These issues underscore the need for strategic thinking and strong business acumen skills across organizations.

As we continue, Part 2 will take a deeper look into topics that are just as critical for success in 2025. From navigating cybersecurity threats to leveraging quantum computing, this next set of challenges highlights the importance of staying agile and forward-thinking. Let’s explore how these issues can shape the future and how being prepared can help your organization achieve its goals. 

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Happy New Year! As we all jump back into what is sure to be another tumultuous year, I thought it would be interesting to pause for a moment to think about and prepare for the big issues facing businesses around the world in 2025.

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The end of a business year is an important time to pause, reflect, and learn about the things that went well and the things that didn’t so you can make the right adjustments moving forward.

In reflecting on my year of successful projects utilizing our simulation-centric platforms, one of the most significant and impactful areas of work for me was the design, development, and delivery of a portfolio of coaching and feedback simulations that provided learners with the opportunity to step into a role of a coach in a simulated environment and learn-by-doing.

Obviously, coaching is one of the most important, and broadest, areas of talent development and there are a lot of experts out there who provide models, frameworks, and excellent content to learn from. But there really aren’t a lot of ways to gain expertise through practice other than traditional role plays and some fairly strange technologies where an avatar is bringing a human to life, but it is still a person behind the curtain like the Wizard of Oz.

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The end of a year is a time for both reflection and planning forward. 2024 was another volatile year from a business perspective as many organizations dealt with a bumpy economy and other issues that included:

• What to do with AI?
• Spin-offs, mergers, and restructurings
• Sustainability
• Remote Work
• Cybersecurity
• Supply chain issues
• Labor force issues

It’s important for everyone to take inventory of the things that worked and the things that didn’t and move forward with your strategy, the setting of goals, and the execution that must occur to be successful in the coming year.

In any year, having an organization that has a culture of Business Acumen is important and I believe given all the challenges we are going to face in 2025, they are going to be more important than ever.

To help you start thinking about the challenges and ways to solve them through having better Business Acumen skills, I put together three of the most foundational skills needed by every organization going into a new year:

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