How does commercial acumen develop?
As we keep trying to improve our work, it's a question we love to return to.
Over fifty years we've watched more than a thousand teams make business decisions in realistic business simulations. They've ranged from graduate trainees to senior management teams, with participants from 6 of the world's 7 continents.
Despite those differences, we see the same patterns repeating. These recurring patterns have gradually shaped our thinking about how commercial acumen develops. Below are our observations:
Select an observation to explore it further.
1. The first consequence is rarely the last →
2. Commercial decisions involve trade-offs →
3. Different people see the same business differently →
4. The consequences need to matter →
5. Under pressure, people rely on the judgement they've already built →
6. Pressure changes how people think and make decisions →
As the world changes, we continue to observe, learn and refine our thinking and our work. These observations aren't intended as a theory of commercial acumen, only as patterns we've repeatedly seen over many years.
We hope you find them useful.