Business Acumen

This course will provide the student with an overview and framework for understanding general business acumen, as well as an introduction to strategies that support business communications to match operational supply with demand through a given enterprise.  The course will focus on contemporary and general business management theories and best practices along with concepts from accounting, economics, finance, marketing, business law, and statistical analysis.  Students will acquire knowledge of the tools, techniques, and processes needed to effectively employ business management applications such as communications, risk, budgeting, ethics, and business-decision fundamentals.  

UPON COMPLETION OF THE COURSE, THE STUDENT WILL BE COMPETENT IN:

• Identifying and evaluating influential literature relevant to business acumen topics.
• Discussing the meaning of business acumen and its importance as a foundation to developing additional business management and leadership skills.
• Synthesizing and applying universal ethical principles to business acumen in modern organizations.
• Understanding the importance of business acumen as it relates to competitive analysis, decision-making, strategy development and implementation, and change management.
• Discussing how business management and leadership operational decision-making creates business value.
• Understanding how to create and build an organization that prioritizes business fundamentals in the decision-making process.
• Analyzing, evaluating, and applying stakeholders’ feedback to prioritize and improve future business endeavors.
• Analyzing, evaluating, and applying business management best practices for effective and informed decision-making in modern organizations.
• Identifying and applying appropriate business management tools and technology to accomplish strategic operational goals.
• Discussing the importance of leveraging business acumen knowledge to better enable organizations to analyze competition amongst firms and industries.
• Identifying, evaluating, and applying effective methods and techniques for learning, applying, and improving business acumen.
• Understanding the importance of leveraging risk management with business acumen fundamentals.
• Understanding and evaluating business communication strategies for leveraging current and developing communication channels and technology.
• Discussing the future of business acumen concepts and efficient approaches to integrating business management approaches. 
• Understanding the use of generative AI tools to identify and verify reference sources used to update and expand the analysis of business acumen topics.

ACQUIRED SKILLS

• Competitive Analysis
• Team Dynamics
• Market Positioning
• Communications
• Risk Management
• Budgeting
• Business Decision-Making