A few weeks ago, I facilitated a session on strategy and business acumen for a group of graduate trainees at one of Nigeria’s leading banks. It was one of those sessions that leaves the facilitator thinking long after the class has ended. As we discussed macro- and microeconomics, competitive advantage, financial performance, strategic execution, and the role each employee plays in creating organisational success, I found myself wondering how many experienced professionals would have been able to answer the same questions. The more I reflected, the more I realised that one of the greatest capability gaps in many organisations is not technical expertise. It is strategic and business acumen – an extension of financial and business literacy that my colleagues and I consider a “life skill” that needs to be taught to children.

Ironically, many of the people responsible for making strategic decisions have never intentionally learned about how strategy works or how businesses create value. We assume these capabilities somehow emerge with experience. Sometimes they do. Often, they do not, and fancy training for a handful of top managers in renowned business schools are not necessarily the silver bullet. This matters because organisations do not execute strategy through strategy documents. They execute strategy through thousands of decisions made every day by managers and employees across the business. If those individuals cannot see the bigger picture, even the best strategy will struggle to deliver meaningful results.

Unfortunately, many professionals spend years becoming experts in their functional disciplines while remaining unfamiliar with the business itself. HR professionals understand HR. Finance professionals understand accounting. Engineers understand engineering. IT professionals understand technology. Yet relatively few understand how these functions interact to create value for customers and shareholders and how the broader macroeconomic, industry and market realities affect their organisations and the decisions that they make. They know their function, but not necessarily the business.

This challenge has been recognised by management, which emphasised decades. Ram Charan has consistently argued that business acumen distinguishes managers who simply run functions from leaders who create value across the enterprise. Similarly, research published in Harvard Business Review has emphasised that effective leaders combine technical expertise with commercial understanding, strategic judgement, and cross-functional thinking. MIT Sloan Management Review has likewise highlighted the growing importance of systems thinking and business model understanding as organisations navigate increasingly complex environments.

The consequences of weak strategic and business acumen are often subtle but significant. Departments optimise their own performance while unintentionally undermining organisational goals. Managers make technically correct decisions that are commercially poor. Customer needs become secondary to internal processes. Resources are allocated without understanding strategic priorities. Meetings focus on operational issues while overlooking the broader competitive landscape. Over time, organisations become highly efficient at doing work that contributes little to sustainable competitive advantage.

“Perhaps the greatest misconception is that strategic thinking is the exclusive responsibility of senior executives. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every employee makes decisions that influence strategy.”

Perhaps the greatest misconception is that strategic thinking is the exclusive responsibility of senior executives. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every employee makes decisions that influence strategy. A relationship manager deciding how to respond to a dissatisfied customer, a procurement officer selecting a supplier, an HR manager designing a performance management process, or an operations supervisor resolving a production issue is making decisions that ultimately affect customer experience, profitability, efficiency, and competitive positioning. Organisations therefore need to stop assuming that business acumen develops automatically with tenure. Like leadership, communication, or decision-making, it must be deliberately assessed, developed, and reinforced.

The first step is assessment. Organisations routinely assess technical competence and leadership potential, yet few systematically evaluate strategic thinking, commercial awareness, or business acumen. Understanding where these gaps exist provides the foundation for meaningful development. Second, organisations should deliberately expose employees to the broader business. Cross-functional projects, job rotations, customer immersion, business simulations, and strategy workshops help professionals understand how different parts of the organisation contribute to value creation. They begin to see not only their own role but also how the entire system works together.

Third, business and strategic acumen should become part of everyday organisational conversations rather than annual strategy retreats. Managers should routinely ask questions such as, ‘How does this decision support our strategy?’ What value does this create for customers? What are the financial implications? How does this affect other parts of the organisation? Over time, these conversations cultivate habits of strategic thinking. Finally, leaders must model the behaviour they wish to see. Employees learn strategic thinking not only through formal training but also by observing how leaders ask questions, weigh alternatives, balance competing priorities, and make decisions.

Organisations that consistently demonstrate curiosity, commercial awareness, and systems thinking gradually build cultures where strategic acumen becomes everyone’s responsibility rather than the preservation of a select few. Every organisation wants strategic leaders. Yet very few deliberately develop strategic thinking. We recruit functional experts, promote technical specialists, and then expect them to make commercial decisions that shape the future of the business. That expectation is no longer sufficient.

Building business and strategic acumen should not begin in the boardroom. It should begin with graduate trainees, first-line supervisors, and emerging leaders. The organisations that invest early in helping their people see the big picture will ultimately make better decisions, execute better strategies, and create greater value. After all, people can only connect the dots when they first learn to see the picture.

Omagbitse Barrow is the chief executive of Efiko Management Consulting, and he supports organisations and leaders to translate their strategy into results.