Blog: How Can You Help Your People Develop Commercial Acumen?

3 suggestions for development opportunities…

Commercial acumen is clearly a highly desirable skill, and it should follow that developing your commercial skills and those of your people is a good thing to do in principle. However, in practice, developing commercial acumen is not always straightforward, and different people will learn best in different ways.

So, what could they look like?

On-the-job experience

Hands-on experience is the most effective way of developing commercial acumen, but companies may be reluctant to place an inexperienced person in a position of commercial responsibility. Experience can be built up gradually over time, perhaps by allocating someone a small budget, and then over time gradually increasing their responsibility as they build experience. Very few people will ultimately be capable of taking on full profit and loss (P&L) responsibility. However, by using different types of experience, people at all levels in the organisation can take on some commercial ownership. The key is to set clear objectives and development plans and measure that the necessary skills/experience are being developed. You can read more about CRF’s explorations of the various types of experience available, such as managing a cost budget or preparing and delivering a business case or project plan, here. [link]

Training

Many of the skills, tools and techniques can be learned in a formal training environment, and put into practice on the job. This is particularly true of some of the knowledge-based aspects of commercial awareness, for example interpreting financial statements and ratios and selecting and applying diagnostic models. Online learning is also likely to be effective in delivering some aspects. However, a large part of commercial acumen is about developing the right sort of mindsets and attitudes, and training is unlikely to be sufficient. It is also extremely important that opportunities are available to apply the learning in real life situations.

Business simulations

Many organisations use off-the-shelf business simulation tools or tools which have a degree of customisation, although sometimes these can be too far removed from real-life business scenarios to be useful. An alternative is to have a commercial expert lead delegates through case studies or scenarios which reflect the types of dilemmas, choices and consequences faced by commercial managers in real-life situations.

Other development options

In recent years, development budgets have been squeezed in many organisations. It is therefore necessary to find other ways of developing commercial skills without resorting to expensive training programmes.

Here are some further suggestions:

• Direct explanation by touchline coaching is often the best method of learning. This could come either from a line manager or a mentor in the organisation.
• Spend time with commercial functions such as Sales or Marketing to understand their business challenges. Consider attending some sales calls to find out more about customers.
• Read the business sections of the press, such as The Financial Times, The Times and The Telegraph. There is especially good coverage at weekends. Quality journals such as The Economist are also good information sources.
• Build networks, both by interacting with high performing colleagues internally and building an external network.

Want to find out more about building a high performance culture?

Check out CRF Learning’s Building a High-Performance Culture On Demand course.

Or for something focused more on changing the mindset to be more commercial in practical terms, view the new Developing Commercial Acumen short course.