--- title: Strong Business Acumen or the Competency of Common Sense? description: Part of strong business acumen is taking the best pieces of data and applying common sense to make the best business decisions. image: https://www.advantexe.com/hubfs/Blogs/business-acumen-decision-making.png --- [![logo-advantexe-150.png](https://www.advantexe.com/hs-fs/hubfs/logo-advantexe-150.png?width=150&height=123&name=logo-advantexe-150.png "logo-advantexe-150.png")](https://www.advantexe.com) ![blog-banner-2022](https://www.advantexe.com/hs-fs/hubfs/blog-banner-2022.png?width=973&name=blog-banner-2022.png "blog-banner-2022") ### The Advantexe Advisor Blog - providing a deep and applicable understanding of the system of business. # Strong Business Acumen or the Competency of Common Sense? By Robert Brodo | Sep 23, 2015 9:39:00 PM | [Business Acumen](https://www.advantexe.com/blog/topic/business-acumen) [![Share on Facebook](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/facebook-24x24.png)](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fstrong-business-acumen-or-the-competency-of-common-sense%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook) [![Share on LinkedIn](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/linkedin-24x24.png)](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fstrong-business-acumen-or-the-competency-of-common-sense%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dlinkedin) [![Share on Twitter](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/twitter-24x24.png)](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fstrong-business-acumen-or-the-competency-of-common-sense%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dtwitter&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fstrong-business-acumen-or-the-competency-of-common-sense%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dtwitter&source=tweetbutton&text=Strong%20Business%20Acumen%20or%20the%20Competency%20of%20Common%20Sense%3F) [![Share on Pinterest](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/pinterest-24x24.png)](http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fstrong-business-acumen-or-the-competency-of-common-sense%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dpinterest&media=) [![Share on Email](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/email-24x24.png)](mailto:?subject=Check%20out%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fstrong-business-acumen-or-the-competency-of-common-sense%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Demail%20&body=Check%20out%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fstrong-business-acumen-or-the-competency-of-common-sense%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Demail) ![strong-business-acumen-decision-making](https://www.advantexe.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blogs/business-acumen-decision-making.png?width=586&height=185&name=business-acumen-decision-making.png) As a team of well-traveled consultants in the training and development industry, we have the privilege of working with myriad different industries, companies, leaders, and individual contributors.  With all of this variety, one could assume that's difficult to keep things straight, but the more complexity we see, the clearer the similarities in all of these pieces become. Hundreds (if not thousands) of times during our customization process of interviewing and gathering information from senior leaders, we hear a senior leader say, "My people need [strong Business Acumen skills](https://www.advantexe.com/business-acumen) because they don't  know how to make the right business decisions."  Recently during an interview for a [Sales Leadership learning solution,](https://www.advantexe.com/strategic-business-selling-skills-business-acumen-for-sales-professionals) we had a very candid conversation with a senior leader responsible for sales and service who started our conversation by saying, "I'm not sure our people need business acumen develop ment as much as common sense." I asked him to explain in a bit more detail, and his insights were very interesting. "Most people, if they have the time, can analyze, look at the best practices, talk to smart colleagues, and ultimately make the right decision. But when a decision has to be made quickly and without a lot of data, the only thing that's left is common sense; the amount of it in our company (or the lack thereof) is what worries me." To emphasize the point, the leader gave us an example.  He had recently placed a Client Retention Manager (CRE) on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) because she was losing clients, her client satisfaction score was low, and she seemed to have a poor attitude.  When a new project came in, the business leader sat down with the CRE and explained how important the new project was and how important it was for her to show that she could handle it and perform on the job.  The CRE promised to do a great job and take care of everything.  The business leader trusted her and went on to his other tasks.  Several hours later at the end of the day, a major client issue had been escalated to the business leader.  It turns out that the CRE had decided to delegate several important client-facing tasks from this project to a new employee who was working his third day on the job.  The new employee was trying to do a good job, but wasn't ready to do things by himself.  He promptly messed up each task and infuriated the client.  The business leader shared that what shocked him most about this situation was the lack of common sense,  not a lack of business skills in this case. I wasn't asking the CRE to make a business decision I was asking her to use common sense.  As a result of all of this, the business leader terminated the employee when her PIP was completed unsuccessfully. So what is common sense in a business context?  Webster's Dictionary defines common sense as "sound and prudent judgment based on the simple perception of the situation or facts."  Based on what we have seen in more than a thousand years of business simulation experience, and something I shared with the business leader we were interviewing that I disagree with this definition and offered a different one. *Common sense is not just about having all the necessary information; it's the application of the information you have.* In the previous example, the CRE had all of the information she needed to make sound decisions and actions.  She had all of the policies and procedures of project management, she had access to all of the client information including their strategy and business objectives, and she knew that she was on a PIP.  But she didn't know what to do with any of the information and she clearly didn't know how to apply it.  Her job was in danger, yet with a clear lack of common sense, she delegated important client tasks to a new employee who had been working for only three days. I propose that common sense is a critical part of a full business acumen skill set.  If common sense is the application of information, then it enhances the business acumen decision making process.  We see that a lot in business simulation workshops.  For example, when teams execute a process of reviewing all of the information they have and thoroughly assessing the situation, it is a lot easier to make the best decisions  on things like products, prices, markets, customer focus, and finances.  In summary, we live in a business world of  on-demand data. Every employee has instant access to more data and information than can be processed.  Part  of strong[ business acumen  development competency](https://www.advantexe.com/blog/defining-business-acumen)  and overall acumen understand ing is taking the best pieces of data from this overflow and applying common sense to make the best business decisions. [![Why Business Acumen Matters ](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/1153922/ef562d5a-acb6-45df-86ae-098c09e7fcc0.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/1153922/ef562d5a-acb6-45df-86ae-098c09e7fcc0)   ![Robert Brodo](https://www.advantexe.com/hubfs/Blogs/rob-brodo-author.png) **About The Author** Robert Brodo is co-founder of Advantexe. He has more than 20 years of training and business simulation experience. [**](https://www.advantexe.com) [**](https://twitter.com/robrodo) [**](https://www.linkedin.com/pub/rob-brodo/0/334/574) COMMENTS ### SUBSCRIBE VIA EMAIL ### About Advantexe Advantexe is a gold medal winning training and performance improvement organization specializing in the development and delivery of interactive learning journeys using computer-based business simulations as the catalyst for learning and change in the areas of: Business Acumen, Business Leadership, and Strategic Business Selling learning solutions. 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