Developing Business Acumen Via eLearning
If you work in a corporate organization, chances are that you’ve heard words like “business acumen” or “commercial acumen” thrown around a lot. But what does this word mean? Commercial acumen, which can go by many names, is a strong understanding of the business world and an organization’s market and environment, backed by a ready grasp of what the organization needs to do to succeed. It is a skill that every employee must possess in an organization, in order to make informed business decisions based on their understanding of how their organization conducts business. As commercial acumen training is supposed to be an organization-wide training in which employees from every department need to participate, traditional methods like classroom training are inefficient, as they cost too much and can train only a small number of employees at the same time. Digital learning, or eLearning on the other hand, can train the whole organization at the same time while costing less. But that’s not all, digital learning can be used to train employees in much less time than traditional classroom training, too. In this article, we’ll discuss how digital learning can be used to develop commercial acumen in employees.
1. Developing Commercial Thought Process
If employees need to develop commercial acumen, they need to start thinking like business professionals. But, in order to develop a commercial thought process, the first thing an employee needs to learn is analytical skills, in order to outline the context, scope, and details of the specific situation they’re faced with. Secondly, employees need to learn to improvise, because things don’t always go according to plan, and a large part of business acumen is to respond to unanticipated developments without problems. Once you’ve taught them business strategy using infographics, text, interactivities and videos, use simulations in your digital learning program to give your employees a virtual space to apply the commercial thought process.
2. Improving Business Knowledge
Improving employees’ business knowledge is a sure-shot way to develop a commercial acumen in them. When employees understand how to interpret financial statements like balance sheets, income statements, and cash-flow statements, they can make better financial decisions. Interactive videos can be used in digital learning courses to help employees learn to interpret financial statements. But, there’s more to business knowledge than just knowing your way around financial statements. There are a number of business articles, blogs, and magazines on the internet that can be added to digital learning courses as resources for the employees to go through for extensive reading on the topic. This will help employees keep up-to-date on the latest trends and strategies in business around the world, as well as in their own industry. Business case studies can also be given in a course for the employees to peruse to increase their business knowledge.
3. Enhancing Management And Leadership Skills
These are very important skills to have as part of business acumen. You see, business acumen is actually a blend of a number of skills, and management and leadership make a large part of it. A business is not just made up of cash flows and profits, but actual people, who need to be managed and led. This requires the leader to empathize with and understand different types of behaviours. Digital learning can be used to send microlearning courses to employees that give them tips on how to improve their people skills, in addition to simulations that let them apply these skills in a virtual space.
Employees with strong business acumen not only make correct, sound decisions and implement appropriate business strategies to contribute to their organization’s success, but will also go on to become leaders that will take their organizations to new heights. Digital learning is the perfect learning strategy to inculcate business acumen in your organization’s employees because it is a strategy that promotes continuous learning. Continuous learning is necessary, in current times, to cope with new developments in the business world that occur every day, leading to a rapidly changing business environment. If you wish to develop, refresh, improve, or strengthen your employees’ business acumen ability and overall business decision making, implement digital learning in your organization at your latest convenience.
