Business Acumen
I just read a good article at Strategy-Business.com called Sharpening Your Business Acumen.
It gives examples of GE, BP, Apple, and others and talks about "linking an insightful assessment of the external business landscape with the keen awareness of how money can be made — and then executing the strategy to deliver the desired results."
Of course, being able to assess the external business landscape means that "leaders have to be comfortable making decisions with unknown factors; survival depends on those choices producing viable outcomes whatever may happen."
The article focuses on six questions to get you thinking about the future of your market space and what your business should do about it. These are:
- What is happening in the world today?
- What does it mean for others?
- What does it mean for us?
- What would have to happen first (for the results we want to occur)?
- What do we have to do to play a role?
- What do we do next?
Your challenge as a leader after answering these questions is to link the market opportunties to your corporation's strategies, decide on a set of specific actions, and execute the plan.