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    Business Acumen and Strategy for Managers

    Create and implement a winning business strategy plan

    Many successful, critical thinking decision making executives have difficulty bridging the gap between functional expertise and general management skills. All too often, the specialized skills that made them invaluable in their former role become far less useful in a general management role, while the need for general business skills and decision making tools increases.

    This skill is often referred to as “business acumen,” which is described as an intuitive understanding of how companies make money and a realization that a compelling vision can be effectively translated into an actionable strategy. We have all met people who have this ability, and we understand that this skill will carry these people much further than specialized expertise alone. This course will “jump start” your business acumen, help you develop compelling business strategies and a communications plan.

    Learn how to:

    • Gain a realistic picture of your company’s position, market, and potential  
    • Examine the external environment and understand how external changes affect your company’s ability to succeed 
    • Analyze where your business stands in relation to your key competitors and what the future will look like
    • Understand how to measure the performance of your business, using standards that are highly correlated with value creation
    • Integrate your competitive analysis and financial metrics to improve your business decision making 
    • Create an actionable business strategy, create stakeholder buy-in and a complete strategy implementation map
    • Improve your business skills by learning the right financial terminology

    Day 1: Business Acumen

    • Understanding why business acumen and strategy are more important than ever
    • Assessing your current level of business acumen
    • Identifying specific steps that can be taken to improve business acumen skills

    Day 2: Business Strategy Process

    • Understanding why your company (and you) cannot be great at everything
    • Apply competitive analysis principles to direct and indirect competitors and to future and blue sky opportunities
    • Assess actionable business strategies for your company
    • Test strategic models and decisions through mini case studies
    • Avoid common planning traps and pitfalls by conducting a business strategy review

    Day 3: Strategy Implementation and Communication Plan

    • Implementing strategies effectively
    • Partnering with other organizations
    • Implementing goals through acquisitions
    • Understanding concepts through case studies

    Lori Cross

    Lori Cross is the president of Mind Span Consulting, a firm that specializes in the development of exceptional, authentic leaders in high-tech environments. She coaches and develops CEOs and leaders of all ages on strategy formulation, execution, teambuilding, innovation, and followership. Cross currently serves as a board member on several for-profit and not-for-profit organizations and is teaching strategy and leadership courses in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Enterprise MBA and Executive Education programs.

    Cross has over 25 years of experience in leading global organizations through turn-arounds, start-ups, and the execution of new business models. As group president of VIASYS NeuroCare, she led an aggressive turn-around with an innovative strategy and global implementation model. Previously, Cross led the renewal of GE/Datex-Ohmeda, where her team's success was recognized with the Wisconsin Forward Award. She has also started several successful new businesses in medical and information technology both in the United States and Europe.

    Cross's career has taken her around the world—California, Boston, Germany, and Sweden—and she has spent the last eight years in Madison. She earned a bachelor's of chemical engineering from Northwestern University and a master's in biomedical systems engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She also holds an Executive MBA, with a focus on international marketing.

    Linda Gorchels

    As part of the Executive Education faculty for the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Linda Gorchels is responsible for the financial performance of and long-term strategy for the marketing program. She had previous strategy responsibility in the insurance, publishing, and robotics industries, and has provided strategy consulting or training to such organizations as Trane Commercial Systems, Kerry Group, University of Wisconsin-Extension and CUNA Service Group. Gorchels has been published in the Journal of International Marketing, the Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, the Journal of Contemporary Business Issues, and Industrial Marketing Management. She is co-author of The Manager’s Guide to Distribution Channels, and is author of The Product Manager’s Handbook and The Product Manager’s Field Guide.

    Jim Woodrum

    Jim Woodrum is associate dean of the Enterprise MBA program at the Wisconsin School of Business. Prior to this, he served as the program director for the Advanced Management courses at Wisconsin Executive Education for 2.5 years. Woodrum teaches courses on business acumen, strategy and talent management.

    Prior to joining the university, Woodrum spent more than 20 years with Hewitt Associates, an international human resources consulting and outsourcing firm.

    He earned a B.S. in finance from Millikin University as well as an MBA in finance and industrial relations from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.