A4Q Business Acumen

The Business Acumen course is for anyone interested in the knowledge and skills required to develop business acumen, in particular Business Service Designers (including Business Designers and Service Designers); Business Analysts; Business and Enterprise Architects; Solution Architects and User Researchers. UX Designers, Product Owners and Managers will also find the course beneficial.

• Introduction to Business Acumen
  • The term business acumen
  • The relationship between business acumen and leadership
  • The relationship between business acumen and business service design
  • The term business strategy and the generic competitive strategies
  • The terms service and value
  • The link between business acumen and
    business strategy
• Business Strategy and Architecture
  • The terminology and concepts that explain why an organisation exists:
    • The terms core purpose and core values
    • The concept of values-driven organisations
    • The terms Strategic Value Proposition (SVP) and Unique Selling Proposition
      (USP)
  • Key business architecture artefacts
    • The components of a business capability and business capability model
    • The value stream model
    • The application of business capabilities to enable value stream activities
  • Analysis of value stream for a service
• The Business Ecosystem
  • Key ecosystem terms and concepts
    • Service system and service ecosystem
    • The rationale for analysing the service ecosystem
  • Analysis and modelling the service ecosystem for an organisation
  • External ecosystem and internal ecosystem for an organisation
  • The ecosystem management areas of concern:
    • Stakeholder relationship management
    • Market segmentation
    • Service marketing and promotion
    • Supplier procurement
    • Regulatory, legal and compliance obligations
• Investment Decision Making
  • Key financial concepts and reports
    • Revenue and profit
    • Working capital and cash flow
    • Income statement (Profit and Loss Account)
    • Statement of financial position (Balance sheet)
    • EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxation, Depreciation and Amortisation)
  • Business case
  • Cost analysis
    • Direct and indirect costs
    • Fixed and variable costs
    • Absorption costing
    • Marginal costing
  • Financial results analysis using ratios
    • Profit margin ratio
    • Liquidity ratios
• Business Innovation
  • Business agility
  • Key innovation approaches
    • Triple-loop learning and the learning organisation
    • Fixed and Growth mindsets
    • Digitization, digital transformation and digital business design
  • Key performance management techniques
    • Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)
    • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
    • Balanced Scorecard

A4Q Business Acumen

During this three-day course you’ll receive all the training you need to prepare for the examination leading to the A4Q Certificate in Business Acumen. This is one of the elective modules for the new internationally recognised A4Q Certified Service Designer qualification.

All delegates attending a classroom, virtual classroom or online course, sit the examination (ratified by global certification body iSQI) remotely using an online proctoring service. This examination consists of 40 multiple-choice questions with a pass mark of 26/40.

The Syllabus can be downloaded here: A4Q Business Acumen Syllabus

The Sample Exam can be downloaded here: A4Q Business Acumen Sample Exam