Business Acumen Training Case Study
THE ANALYSIS DEMONSTRATED THAT BUILDING BUSINESS ACUMEN® MORE THAN PAID FOR ITSELF (300%+ ROI).
A leader in the aerospace and defense industry recognized a need for business acumen training and partnered with Acumen Learning to customize and deliver their Building Business Acumen® course. To assess the results of this training, the company hired MetrixGlobal to evaluate how well employees applied what they learned and to measure the impact that these actions had on their organization.
Overall two-thirds of the participants applied what they learned, resulting in improved performance, increased engagement, and higher productivity. It’s estimated that these benefits produced more than a 300% return on investment.
Acumen Learning’s Building Business Acumen® course featured a one-day workshop in which participants learned what it takes for their company to make money. In addition to the workshop, there were several other learning opportunities, including action items worksheet, working with a class partner, using a spreadsheet to navigate the company’s annual report and participating in post-earnings call discussions.
Additionally, the Acumen Learning team sent follow-up emails to the participants to encourage full participation in the follow-through learning opportunities.
The learning objectives for this program were to:
Better understand financials and know how they impact top and bottom results
Understand recent CEO directives and how to support them
Improve leadership through better communication of business and financial results
Make better, faster and more profitable decisions by aligning their objectives with the needs of their organization
Respondents were asked about their key learnings that have stayed with them over the months that have passed since they took the workshop. Almost all of the respondents (97%) now better understand the company’s financials and have gained greater confidence in reading financial statements (83%). About three-quarters of the respondents now find that the CEO’s business decisions are clearer to them (78%), have a better understanding of how to communicate financials to others (78%) and gained insights into how their actions impact the company’s financials (75%).