Business Essentials Certificate Program

A major milestone in every professional’s life is possessing and demonstrating solid business acumen. It’s a way to distinguish yourself as having the knowledge and credibility to earn the trust you need for career advancement. In this fast-track 3-day certificate program, you will learn key skills that are essential to developing business acumen, including the value of an enhanced customer focus strategy to proactively address internal and external customer and stakeholder needs, a basic understanding of financial acumen to interpret and better support your business unit’s goals, and the knowledge to drive your project management approach. Through unique activities, team exercises and a capstone project, you’ll gain a deeper, hands-on understanding of these functions and how they are interconnected so you’ll be ready to demonstrate them on the job.

Your immediate takeaway

• Interpret financial statements to examine your organization’s performance
• Learn the essentials of successful project management
• Create a customer-focused strategy that maximizes relationships with both internal and external customers and stakeholders.
• Synthesize skills in a special capstone project

In addition, you will earn a special certificate in recognition of your participation in this program.

• See the “big picture” of the organization—how the key drivers of business work together to produce profitable growth
• Develop a fundamental understanding of financial analysis
• Explore project management basics and demonstrate business acumen in team projects
• Confidently discuss the finances of a project, division or company—and ask the right questions
• Recognize the importance of a customer-focused strategy and how to create one
• Devise and present solutions for increasing a company’s ROI, performing a financial analysis and setting up a project plan
• Use knowledge to make sound business decisions
• Create an individual action plan for applying key concepts on the job to help you get recognized for your sense of business acumen

• Learning to assess and explain your organization’s performance using financial statements

• Asking informed questions about the finances of a company, division, or project
• Grasping clearer logic underlying business decisions
• Assessing the quality and completeness of basic project plans and monitoring processes
• Effectively developing a charter, creating status reports, communicating with stakeholders, and assessing risks

• Applying techniques to schedule projects; estimate resources, cost and scope; distribute responsibilities; create status reports; and monitor processes
• Assessing a company’s finances for performance and viability
• Analyzing your company’s competitive position in the marketplace
• Applying project management techniques to develop a project plan
• Capstone—applying key concepts to a sample project and managing reports, assimilating feedback and presenting results
• Developing an individual action plan for applying key concepts and strategies on the job

Learning Objectives

• Demonstrate Business Acumen in the Essential Areas of Organizational Alignment, Customer Focus, Finance, and Project Management

Start-Up

• Identify How Business Acumen Fits into the Total Work of Individual Contributors
• Determine Overall Goals and Objectives for This Program
• Understand What Will Be Covered in This Program
• Learn Who’s Who

Organizational Alignment

• Analyze How Money Flows Through an Organization
• Identify the Industry Changes Surrounding the Organization
• Assess How Well the Organization Is Structured to Manage Cash Flows and Deal with Industry Changes
• Intelligently Discuss the Impact of Economic News on an Industry, an Organization, and One’s Own Work

Customer Focus

• Align with Your Organization and Department’s Customer Focus Strategies
• Describe Techniques for Communicating Effectively with Customers, Including Ways to:
• Ask Questions and Listen Actively to Learn About the Needs of Individual External and Internal Customers
• Adapt to Customers’ Different Communication and Decision-Making Styles
• Develop Solutions for Meeting Customer Needs in Ways That Balance Organizational and Individual Needs
• Turn Conflicts into Opportunities for Better Collaboration
• Incorporate Customer Focus When You Update/Report on Current Work or Propose New Work

Financial Acumen

• Align Your Work with the Financial Goals of Your Organization (or a Client’s Organization)
• Incorporate Key Financial Issues When You Discuss and Structure Your Current or Proposed Work
• Demonstrate to Management Your Commitment to Supporting the Organization’s Financial Goals
• Explain How Financial Specialists Analyze Basic Financial Documents to Gather Information About an Organization Regarding Its Ability to Pay Bills, Repay Lenders or Investors, and Reinvest to Grow the Organization
• Give Examples of Questions That Key Financial Ratios Answer

Project Management

• Describe Key Project Management Terminology
• Recognize the Value of Knowing Why/How a Project Is Important to the Organization and to Yourself
• Explain the Elements of a Charter and Its Relevance to Initiating a Project
• Identify Stakeholders and Their Roles on a Project
• Determine the Scope of Work for the Project
• Identify Roles and Responsibilities for the Project
• Plan for Potential Risks to the Project

The Capstone Challenge

• Participate in an Activity to Bring Together Areas Covered in This Program So That You Can Touch on Aspects of Your Skills and Experience That Add Clear Business Value and Support to Essential Business Needs

Download Extended Seminar Outline PDF