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:

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The phrase “Now I’ve heard it all” came to mind while I was interviewing a Subject Matter Expert for a new, highly customized Strategic Business Negotiations simulation we’re designing.

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The annual ATD (Association for Talent Development) conference is a highly anticipated event for professionals in the training and development field. In addition to the diverse range of workshops and sessions, the expo floor is always one of the biggest highlights of the show, especially coming off the pandemic. While the show ran last year, this year was different. There was a buzz. There was energy. There was pent-up demand for new and innovative ways to learn in the new normal of work. It was back to the traditional size of nearly 10,000 people who were ready to explore.

As part of Advantexe’s presentation at our trade show booth, we hosted an engaging business simulation challenge for conference participants. The Advantexe Paws and Claws Simulation Challenge was a micro business simulation designed to be completed within 15 minutes. It allowed participants to experience the flexibility of our simulations while emphasizing the importance of developing business acumen skills.

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The whispers of a coming recession have turned into shouts just as the leaves have accelerated their fall from the trees. Before we know it, the 4^th quarter, and the year, will be over and we will be facing much uncertainty as we enter 2023. Many business leaders and experts are predicting a significant recession hitting us soon and it seems inevitable that there will be a downturn in the economy.

The best companies are preparing today. They are preparing by assessing their talent and developing plans of action to close the talent gaps that are required to navigate through turbulent times. It’s at this point that leaders should be recognizing they have issues with people who can bring the entire company down as every company is going to be only as strong as its weakest link.

As a talent development professional, I know from decades of experience that every company is on a spectrum of weak to strong based on its weakest links. As you prepare for the inevitable recession, where do you think your organization falls on that spectrum and what can you do to support and develop the weakest links in your organization?

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One of the core features of Advantexe’s digital business simulation platform is its ability to capture data for review and performance analytics. The performance analytics from a well-designed business simulation can be used as part of capabilities assessments and career planning. For a recent business simulation workshop, we conducted for a top car manufacturer, we pulled all the simulation results from the last five cohorts which focused on four critical metrics of success including, revenue, sales expenses, operating expenses, and Net Income (profitability).

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