I found myself attracted to Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company after reading an article by the author Kevin Cope on Acumenlearning.com. Kevin’s confident approach to teaching business acumen skills led me to look for additional articles written by Cope when I found this link to his book.
Cope wrote this book for the businessperson who wants to “have a seat at the [leadership] table” (pg.3). He uses his expertise in business acumen, to break down business concepts for those who want to converse with their company leaders “in financial language [that] they understand” (Pg. 170).
Cope describes business acumen as “a keen, fundamental, street-smart insight into how your business operates and how it makes money and sustains profitable growth, now and in the future.” Throughout the book he breaks down his 5 Key Business Drivers, tips and tricks on identifying prominent information on financial statements, and delivers his message through the perspective of a Bike Shop Owner -- a business savvy character named Austin.
Content Overview
The book is divided into two parts: Part 1: 5 Key Drivers of Any Business and How to Influence Them and Part 2: Simplifying Financial Statements Through the 5 Drivers.
Cope names Cash, Profit, Assets, Growth, and People as the 5 Key Drivers that any business in any industry rely on to build profit and drive cash flow (pg.7). In Part one of the book, the key drivers are individually broken down by chapter, to explain how they relate to one another and effect the success or demise of a business.
In Part two, the author works through three financial statements, line-by-line, to connect the numbers to real-life decisions that business leaders make in an effort to build a business with “long-term, sustainable profitability to support its mission” (pg. 8). The three financial statements that Cope reviews are the income statement, the balance sheet, and the cash flow statement.
Cope did a great job of using his character Austin and his bike shop to build a story that the reader could relate to and reference. I did experience a but of frustration while reading information related to Austin’s financials and having to turn back several pages to look back at the reference. I felt that this disrupted my reading rhythm and added confusion to the points that the author was trying to make.
Andraya's Review
I did appreciate Cope’s approach of being relatable to business acumen beginners. Proper execution of this skill requires a vast financial vocabulary. Not to mention, a basic understanding of accounting, and the perseverance and dedication needed to review financial statements, learn about the inner workings of the stock market, and build new partnerships with company leaders to gain a better understanding of company goals and trends.
For the instructional designer, this book is an easy-read that enables the reader to quickly analyze financial reports and determine trends where they could provide solutions and support. As talent development professionals, we develop every company’s most important business driver -- People. Cope states that “people are your business” (pg. 79). And though our creativity and expertise in andragogy set us apart as a business function, being able to communicate why our training solutions benefit other departments within the company and the company’s “bottom line,” adds value to our perspective and the work that we do.
Overall, I would absolutely suggest this book to a reader who is wanting to understand business acumen from a high-level, without needing to dive into every intricacy that they skill demands. Cope eloquently introduces business concepts in layman terms, easy numeric figures, and with a great use of repetition to help readers become familiar with the concepts and process the information.
For more information on business acumen, be sure to check out these articles (my blog post links), (link), (my post link). And to get access to more book reviews please check out my blog at (link).
Reference:
Cope, K., (2012) Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company. Acumen Learning. Kindle Edition.
Comments