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Managers Lack Business Acumen: Survey

The absence of business acumen is an issue to contend with among managers suggests a recent study by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp). In fact, findings of The Business Acumen Practitioner Pulse Survey reveal that of those polled, 27% believe the lack of knowledge among organizational leaders has a "very great" impact, while 40% consider the impact "high" and 25% feel it is "moderate." For individual contributors, such as engineers and white-collar professionals, the negative impact is seen as moderate (40%) to high (35%). Regarding the lack of business acumen at the technical level, 34% of the respondents rate their company's concern over the issue as "high" or "very high." When those who see it as a problem to a "moderate" extent are added, the number jumps to 83%. And, while the majority of the respondents feel that business acumen is important, they are spending very little money to develop that competency. According to the study findings, a full 67% spend less than $1,000 on business acumen training. Additionally, the problem isn't only local, since 41% of respondents state the problem is domestic, 21% consider it an issue globally and 38% say it is both domestic and global. When it comes to addressing the knowledge deficit problem, the most common approach is in-house training, favored by 70% of respondents, followed by off-the-shelf training options at 42%. Recipients of the training are mostly managers and above (50%) and high-potential candidates (46%). For the training, most companies (56%) rely on training companies, while 54% turn to consultants.