Use our marketing materials to convince your team that business acumen training is just what you and your company needs. < Go to Spread the Word Convince your team. Use our marketing materials to convince your team that business acumen training is just what you and your company needs. Need help? 801.224.5444 info@acumenlearning.com Marketing Materials Company Brochure View Get a holistic view of Acumen Learning's sales, finance, and business acumen training options, including our customization process, curriculum, and customer experience. Course Descriptions Download Get a course description for each of our learning modules. Building Business Acumen Executive Overview Our customized Building Business Acumen® course will help any professional understand the big picture of their business. Download BBA for Sales & Marketing Executive Overview Download You need your sales and marketing team to deliver profitable results. Building Business Acumen training (BBA) helps sales and marketing teams understand how all the moving parts of a company work together to optimize profitable results for your company and customers. Building Business Acumen Essentials Executive Overview Equip your trainers with the skills to teach the big picture of business, how to align decisions to corporate strategy, and improve engagement among employees at scale. Download Applying Business Acumen Executive Overview Download Applying Business Acumen is the next step in your employees’ business acumen journey as they develop professional skills to listen and align to executive communication, understand the factors that guide business decisions, and plan and execute on top priorities. In short, act like a CEO. Virtual Delivery Executive Overview Download Whether working from home or at the office, business acumen training can be a part of your workforce’s curriculum. Since 2010, Acumen Learning has been pioneering virtual instructor-led courses, and there’s no time like the present to teach your employees what executives need them to know and do. Corporate Online Executive Overview Download Whether you’re looking for greater alignment or career advancement, online business acumen training can bridge the gap. Build your credibility, career, and company with a deep knowledge of the customer, commercial, operational, financial, and people dimensions of your business. Earnings Calls Executive Overview Download Whether you’re looking for the ultimate follow up to your business acumen course or an open enrollment experience to align your workforce, there is no better solution than quarterly earnings calls. Activities 10 Questions to Test Your Business Acumen Take Test Test your business acumen fluency with our simple ten questions test. Quick Quiz Get Quiz Answer the Big Picture Quick Quiz based on your company's performance in the most recent fiscal year. Case Studies Get Free Case Studies Get access to our 12 case studies and take your team through the included activities. Client Stories Anthem Read How do we support our executive’s strategy to ensure long-term growth and success as well as meet the short-term expectations of our shareholders? CareerBuilder Read What would our business look like if we trained one thousand sales, marketing, and customer service professionals to be more business savvy? Philips Healthcare Read If we improved our customer focus, created lean end-to-end value chains, and could speak intelligently with executive buyers, how would that change the game? Aerospace & Defense Client Read A leader in the aerospace and defense industry partnered with Acumen Learning to customize and deliver their Building Business Acumen® course. To assess the results of this training, MetrixGlobal evaluated how well employees applied what they learned and the impact on their organization. Verizon Read When the accepted data says that most mergers and acquisitions don’t live up to shareholder expectations, how do we beat the odds? Seeing the Big Picture Resources Seeing the Big Picture Foreword Read Read the foreword of Seeing the Big Picture by Stephen M.R. Covey, author of New York Times bestseller The Speed of Trust . About Kevin Cope, Author Read Meet Kevin, the author of Seeing the Big Picture and founder of Acumen Learning, and his journey in recognizing the need for business acumen training in corporations. Videos What is Business Acumen? Watch While most people understand their job function, most people don't understand important business measures. That gap is where business acumen comes in. Who is Acumen Learning? Watch We help companies get clear on how their companies make money, and then help them make better decisions around that money-making process. In other words, we help build their business acumen. Virtual Business Acumen Training Watch As COVID-19 continues to force companies to shift strategies and make incredibly difficult decisions, there's no time like the present to teach your employees what executives need them to know and do. Our virtual training allows you to do just that. Online Business Acumen Training Watch In this online course, we'll give you the tools you'll need to succeed. Create insights and goals you can use to create specific goals to measurably impact the business. BBA for Sales Training Watch Building Business Acumen training (BBA) helps sales and marketing teams understand how all the moving parts of a company work together to optimize profitable results for your company and customers. A Different Kind of Virtual Training Watch We don’t want you to feel like checking your email is a better use of your time than participating in a poorly taught training. That’s why we’ve made a virtual class that’s as much a discussion for you and your peers as it is instruction for your career. Training with Waste Connections Watch Hear from Waste Connection's leadership on the impact of Acumen Learning's business acumen training. Teaching People to Be Teachers Watch Hear from Mary Anne Whitney, CFO of Waste Connections, on the difference of business acumen training. Customer Testimonials Watch Hear from participants of our course on how business acumen training helped them to see the bigger picture of their company. Next Level Business Watch Our business acumen training courses are customized to your business. We're not a SIM or a game, we're your numbers, your strategy, and we impact your decisions. Build Your Future Leaders Watch Financials aren't the sort of thing people would think is interesting, but with our business acumen training, we get you excited at the importance and impact of your career. Engage Your Employees Watch Engage your employees with a customized business acumen training experience that dives into your numbers, your strategy, and decisions that impact their careers. Building People Watch Business acumen training should make business leaders out of your employees. That's what we do best. Exciting Process Watch We want our business acumen training to help you understand the business of your company and the business decisions that impact your role. You'll walk away smarter and a better partner to your company. Career Changing Training Watch At Acumen Learning, our customized business acumen training will give you an MBA in your company. We bridge the gap of business understanding and business strategy for all companies. Industries Healthcare View The healthcare industry is complex, but from med-device to payors, everyone can benefit from learning how their companies make money. Basic Materials & Energy View The energy producers of the world and those who produce energy-intensive goods face unique and ever changing complexities that are reshaping the marketplace. Consumer Products View Consumer brands have been moving towards transparency. Senior leaders know that they need employees who are able to see things anew, perceive shifts in the marketplace quickly, and understand how to leverage new rules to improve financial performance. Financial Services View New regulations and a global economy has forever changed the financial and insurance landscape. Manufacturing & Industrial Companies View With emerging technologies and new capabilities, manufactures must adjust to the current realities of the marketplace. High-Tech & Telecom View Cloud computing, edge analytics, artificial intelligence, the digitization of media, and far too many other advances to count are changing the way we all work and connect with the world.

We provide thoughtful follow-up to your business acumen training. What follow-up do we use to solidify the learner's experience? FAQs WHY CHOOSE US CLIENTS STORIES FAQs ARTICLES OUR TEAM THOUGHTFUL FOLLOW-UP TO YOUR BUSINESS ACUMEN TRAINING Ultimately it’s up to graduates to become more valuable and valued, but we’re going to do everything we can – as if it were up to us. Graduates will return to work speaking the universal language of business. No matter their level in the organization, they’ll have a big picture mentality and be wrestling with the inherent complexity of your business. They’ll also have a renewed appreciation for how money making is valued throughout the organization and by the stock market. They’ll be excited to share their new knowledge and to use their classroom tools on the job. Our follow-up activities are designed to tap into this energy to help ensure there’s a real change in how decisions are made and how business gets done. 7-Day, 30-Day, and Quarterly Facilitator Check-Ins Within 7 days participants will receive an email from their facilitator to remind them of the commitments they made in class and introduce them to our Acumen in Action follow-through series. On day 30 they’ll do a quick check-in to see how they’re progressing. And every quarter, a week or two before your earnings are released, they’ll remind them to listen in on their earnings calls and use the tools from class to channel their energy toward the right business priorities. Acumen in Action Series Helping others along the way will add dimensions of experience, knowledge, and insight that will benefit your entire organization. And that’s why we developed our Acumen in Action Series. Every month for an entire year graduates are emailed a quick (10-15 minute) activity to be shared in a team meeting. Graduates are expected to lead these discussions, even if they’re not the team leader. The activities are designed to increase information flow and expand not only the graduate’s business acumen , but also his or her colleague’s business acumen . Think of it as your secret weapon in building your organization’s bench strength. Accountability Partners Before participants are let loose, they’re required to choose an Accountability Partner (a classmate) to whom they can be accountable. They’ll commit to a meeting 30 days out to discuss their progress on their business acumen Action Plans. Together they can help further each other’s knowledge and support efforts to influence results. The goal of these mentorships is to deepen a graduate’s ability to partner cross-organizationally and more fully understand another’s world within the company – in an effort to further breakdown organizational chimneys. Challenge: Manager Review & Debrief Graduates will schedule a meeting with their supervisor or boss to review what they learned in the classroom and share their Action Plan – what they’ll be doing in the next sixty to ninety days to improve company performance. Setting up this discussion need not be complicated or overly formal, a quick lunch conversation, or a brief scheduled meeting is all that’s need to have a conversation with your boss to discuss how you can better achieve meaningful results. We’ll challenge your employees to meet with their manager on a regular basis just to talk about business. Challenge: Teach a Colleague It was the Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger who said, “By teaching we are learning.” We agree. We commit participants to teach one of the principles they learned in class to a colleague because in the real world businesses are complex and it’s up to leaders with business acumen to provide clarity and direction. Besides, the more our graduates become known for their insightful business acumen the more valued they’ll become to your business – and you’ll want to send even more people through our courses. It’s a win-win! QUARTERLY EARNINGS CALLS Our Quarterly Earnings Calls are the ultimate follow up to an instructor-led business acumen training course. Every quarter, shortly after your earnings are released, graduates will join their facilitator on a web conference to break down your company’s most recent earnings announcement using the Navigating the Financials and Executive Alignment tools they received in class. In about an hour, your facilitator will reconnect graduates to concepts they learned in class and share insights into your executive team’s analysis of the business and industry. They’ll review key numbers and look at the business like an investor. And most importantly, we’re not merely disseminating company information – we’re modeling how to listen to future executive releases… quarter-after-quarter and year-after-year. Next to taking one of our customized courses, there’s no better way to build your business acumen than to participate on one of our Quarterly Earnings Calls. They’re the ultimate follow-up solution that virtually guarantees movement of the needle. Start a Conversation

Have your team take the business acumen quiz to see if there's a gap in business and financial strategy at your company. Business Acumen IQ ® 01 ARE YOUR PEOPLE FINANCIALLY LITERATE? Employees who can't speak the language of business can't help their companies bridge the gap between ambition and performance. Test your business acumen by taking the quiz today. 95% of employees don't understand company strategy 90% of employees don't understand important business metrics 70% of U.S. employees are disengaged 02 WHY FINANCIAL LITERACY MATTERS Employees who understand how your company makes money and how their decisions impact the money-making process are valuable. Whether you're looking for greater alignment, engagement, or productivity, business acumen training can bridge the gap. Have your team take the business acumen quiz. See if there's a gap in your company. Learn to speak the language of business See the big picture of your organization Understand important company data Make informed business decisions Know your impact on company objectives Effectively communicate your ideas | ACUMEN LEARNING 10 QUESTIONS TO TEST YOUR BUSINESS ACUMEN TAKE QUIZ ▹ acumenlearning.com | © Acumen Learning

The Cost of Poor Decision-Making At the executive level, every decision carries weight. A pricing shift, a new hire, a capital investment—these aren’t just operational choices. They’re strategic levers designed to drive growth, increase margins, and position the company for long-term success. But even the best strategies can fall flat when the rest of the organization doesn’t fully understand their financial impact. Not because employees don’t care, but because they haven’t been equipped with the business acumen to see how their daily decisions influence profitability, working capital, or strategic priorities. And that disconnect can be costly. Understanding Business Acumen: A Competitive Edge What separates exceptional leaders from the rest? They don’t just know how to lead, they understand how the business actually works. That’s the heart of business acumen. Business acumen means understanding the interplay between financials, strategy, operations, and people. It means knowing what EBITDA really tells you, and what it doesn’t. It means anticipating how a headcount increase in Ops will affect margins in Q3, not just Q1 morale. When leaders develop business acumen, they gain: Clarity:  They see the big picture and make confident, aligned decisions. Control:  They base decisions on facts and financial forecasts, not guesswork. Consistency:  They create alignment across teams and tie daily decisions back to strategic goals. The Business Impact of Financially Grounded Decisions When leaders understand financial drivers, they stop reacting and start anticipating. They don’t just ask, “Can we do this?” They ask, “Should we do this—and how will it affect long-term value?” Consider this: A newly appointed executive at a major medical device company had a clear goal: drive profitable growth. But despite aggressive targets, sales leaders were missing a critical skill—understanding how their decisions impacted the business financially. This wasn’t the exec’s first rodeo. They’d partnered with Acumen Learning before and knew what strong business acumen could do. So, they brought us in again, this time to equip senior sales leaders with the tools to think like owners. After training, those leaders began approaching sales conversations differently. They connected the dots between customer needs, company goals, and profitability. Engagement spiked. So did alignment. That’s what happens when business acumen becomes part of the culture. Strategy doesn’t just live in the boardroom; it shows up in every decision your team makes. Strategy Is Only as Good as Its Execution You can’t execute what you don’t understand. When business acumen is missing, even the best strategies fall apart. Silos creep in. Teams focus on pet projects or personal KPIs that don’t ladder up. Time and capital are wasted. But with a shared understanding of financials and strategy, alignment gets easier. Teams rally behind priorities they actually understand. They make choices that reinforce—not contradict—the strategy. Business acumen is the connective tissue between the executive vision and day-to-day execution. Better Communication = Better Collaboration Most business breakdowns are communication breakdowns. The C-Suite speaks in strategy, finance, and forecasts. But when those ideas trickle down, they’re often mistranslated or misunderstood. Business acumen helps everyone—from the boardroom to the back office—speak the same language. It simplifies complex ideas, builds cross-functional understanding, and makes it easier to collaborate without confusion. When finance, operations, HR, and product all see the business through the same lens, execution accelerates. Your leaders recognize patterns sooner. They calculate tradeoffs faster. They seize opportunities before your competitors do. In a market that moves as fast as this one, that might be your biggest advantage. Conclusion: Lead with Insight, Not Instinct The stakes are too high to rely on instinct alone. Solid strategies deserve flawless execution, and that requires every leader to think like a business owner. Acumen Learning’s tailored business acumen training equips your executive team with the tools to make faster, smarter, financially grounded decisions that fuel your long-term growth. 👉 Ready to stop leaving a financial impact to chance? Let’s build a leadership team that sees clearly, decides confidently, and drives measurable results. Start a conversation with Acumen Learning  to learn how we can tailor a program to your business. ✅ Subscribe to our YouTube Channel  for more Business Acumen videos! ✅ Follow us on LinkedIn   @AcumenLearning  to keep up with all company updates! ✅ For more on our business acumen training, visit our   website ! #businessacumen   #businessstrategy   #learninganddevelopment   #leadershipdevelopment   #financialstrategy   #financialacumen

Think of your career as a journey. To get to the next level, you need more than just a map; you need a business GPS. That's business acumen—the ability to understand how companies really make money, use resources, and deliver value. It’s the difference between being a passenger and being the pilot of your own career. You don't learn this skill from a textbook. You build it by seeing how the pieces fit together, asking smarter questions, and sharpening your perspective. And one of the best ways to fast-track that process is by reading the right books. Here are five books that can give you that strategic advantage, with a healthy dose of real-world wisdom. 1. The Goal Eliyahu Goldratt No, this isn't a sci-fi thriller. This is the business novel that turned operations into an adventure story. Told through the eyes of a plant manager scrambling to save his factory, this book reveals how bottlenecks, processes, and resource constraints determine whether a business thrives or flatlines. It’s a hilarious and surprisingly suspenseful crash course in systems thinking that will make you see the world as a series of interconnected choices. 2. What the CEO Wants You to Know Ram Charan Ram Charan is a legendary advisor to CEOs for a reason: he cuts through the noise. He distills the entire business universe down to simple levers. By walking you through these fundamentals from a leader's perspective, he teaches you how to evaluate opportunities, make smart tradeoffs, and focus on what really drives the business. Think of this book as a crash course in not sounding like a dummy in meetings with the C-suite. 3 . The Personal MBA Josh Kaufman Don't have $100,000 and two years for business school? Josh Kaufman has you covered. This book is a brilliant, no-nonsense overview that pulls together the essential concepts of business—from marketing and finance to sales and operations—into one accessible resource. It’s a valuable vocabulary builder and a practical guide for anyone who wants to learn the language of business without a formal degree. 4. Good to Great Jim Collins For years, this was the bible of corporate strategy. Collins's research into why some companies outperform others provides a powerful lens for strategic thinking. The book explores concepts like the "Hedgehog Concept" and "Level 5 Leadership," arguing that disciplined decisions and a strong culture are what sustain long-term performance. While some of its examples have been debunked over time, the core lessons on discipline and strategic focus remain a classic primer for anyone seeking to understand what makes companies endure. 5. Seeing the Big Picture Kevin Cope If you're looking for a starting point that makes business acumen approachable and immediately applicable, this book is essential. Cope uses The 5 Business Drivers of cash, profit, assets, growth, and people, but his unique strength is showing you how every employee, in every role, influences them. It’s the ultimate "how-to" guide that helps you connect your day-to-day work directly to your company's bottom line. Why Business Acumen Matters for Your Career Developing business acumen isn't just about understanding numbers; it’s about building credibility, influence, and strategic thinking. When you can speak the language of leadership and show how your work drives measurable results, you stop being seen as just a functional expert. You become a trusted business partner. If you want to build the fundamentals in your company, Acumen Learning's Building Business Acumen® training helps you understand the fundamental drivers of business, the metrics used to measure them, and your role in creating sustainable, profitable, mission-driven growth. ✅ Subscribe to our YouTube Channel  for more Business Acumen lessons! ✅ For more on our business acumen training visit our website . #businessacumen   #businessstrategy   #learninganddevelopment   #leadershipdevelopment   #Sales   #salestraining   #salessuccess   #financialstrategy   #financialacumen   #relationships   #5drivermodel   #cash   #profit   #assets   #growth   #people

You’ve hired talented people. They’re smart, capable, and often experts in their domains. But here’s the catch: being great at their function doesn’t mean they’re moving the business forward. You’re still answering basic questions about budgets. You’re still seeing silos. And too often, you're left wondering why strategic decisions stall at middle management. It’s not a work ethic issue—it’s a perspective issue . Most employees are trained to execute tasks, not think like CEOs. That’s the real gap. And it’s costing you. The Path: Business Acumen Training that Builds Strategic Leaders At Acumen Learning, we help companies close the most expensive skill gap they rarely talk about: the gap between functional excellence and enterprise thinking. Business acumen  isn’t about turning everyone into a finance wizard or a strategy consultant. It’s about teaching people to see how the business actually works and what their role has to do with it. We help your team: Understand how the company makes (and loses) money. Interpret key financial drivers and business models. Make decisions based on impact, not just effort. This is how you turn smart employees into trusted business leaders. The Belief Shift: From Task-Oriented to Enterprise-Minded When your employees start thinking like CEOs, everything changes: Productivity shifts  from busywork to high-impact priorities. Engagement deepens  because people finally understand why  their work matters. Collaboration improves  as silos give way to shared strategic goals. Risk decreases  because decisions are no longer made in a vacuum. Your team stops asking, “Can I do this?” and starts asking, “Should I do this—and how will it affect the bottom line?” The ROI: The Soft Skills That Drive Hard Numbers The outcomes we deliver aren’t theoretical. They’re felt on the balance sheet. When employees understand how the business works, they make better choices. They prioritize smarter. They stop spinning cycles on misaligned projects and start driving initiatives that actually move the company forward. Revenue per employee climbs—not because people work harder, but because they work smarter. Forecasts sharpen, communication improves, and execution becomes a coordinated effort, not a guessing game. This is the difference between teams that function and teams that grow. We help your people stop working in isolation and start leading with context, so their individual brilliance becomes a competitive advantage for the entire company. The Enemy: Strategic Drift Your biggest threat isn't low performance. It’s misalignment . Teams are making decisions without a shared understanding of what the business actually needs. That’s what business acumen eliminates. It aligns your entire workforce around financial results, strategic direction, and smart decision-making. It transforms every meeting, project, and plan into a growth opportunity. A Company Where Everyone Thinks Like a CEO Imagine an organization where everyone—from sales to ops to HR—understands the company’s strategy, financial goals, and customer priorities. Imagine not having to explain why a decision matters because your team already sees it, gets it, and acts accordingly. That’s what happens when business acumen becomes part of your culture. Ready to Close the Gap? We’ve trained hundreds of Fortune 500 teams. We’ve seen companies double down on strategy and execution because they stopped training for tasks and started training for thinking. If you're ready to build a team of strategic thinkers, let's talk . Reach out to Acumen Learning and discover how our customized programs turn your people into the business leaders your CEO needs. ✅ Subscribe to our YouTube Channel  for more Business Acumen videos! ✅ Follow us on LinkedIn @AcumenLearning  to keep up with all company updates! ✅ For more on our business acumen training visit our   website ! #businessacumen   #businessstrategy   #learninganddevelopment   #leadershipdevelopment   #financialstrategy