Grow your business acumen

This skills program emphasizes the importance of a holistic market-focused approach to business and an overall big picture understanding of the business and its interrelationships.

Business acumen is an almost intuitive and applicable understanding of the profitability of a company. At its core, it is the ability to combine experience, knowledge, perspective and awareness to make sound business decisions, which leads to better judgment and allows to view organizational needs in a holistic, long-term way.

This course provides the building blocks to enhance an understanding of how a business functions and how the bottom line is impacted when there is a disconnect between the various departments. The organizational structure is explained along with the view that systems are common to all businesses. Systems thinking is discussed to acquire a view of the interrelated system components of a business by referring to the systems model. A business cannot survive without clients and the important aspects of customer excellence, as well as ethics, are explained with examples.

As it is important to have a solid foundation in understanding the financial aspect of a business, we recommend you enrol for the course: Keep your eye on the bottom line: financial statements made easy, to further enhance your financial and commercial acumen.

Target Group
Employees working in:

• Freight forwarding
• Freight finance

Learning Outcomes

• Organizational structure represented by the organogram
• Systemic business process as depicted by the systems model
• Organizational structures: from hierarchy to flat to holocratic
• Characteristics of effective teams leading to a positive working environment
• Organizational ethics, Code of Conduct and compliance
• Examples of professional behaviour contributing to the success of a business
• Best practice in customer service
• Legal aspects relating to the Freight Forwarding Industry