Master Strategic Acumen for Faster Growth in the AI Age

 Master Strategic Acumen for Faster Growth  in the AI Age

Acumen   Catapults Trusting  Individuals & Organisations to Nonpareil Spots

 Most people are aware of their IQ, EQ scores and the big five personality traits, but are unaware of the level of their 'ACUMEN" or in many cases even the exact meaning and scope of this vital word. It is, in fact, the distillation of all these indices and is the foundation of one's performance and achievements.

Some research studies indicate that about 65% of business leaders feel that insufficient business acumen limits their organisation’s strategic growth. Add to that the fact that the rise of AI is transforming business operations, creating both new opportunities and greater complexity that demand a more advanced form of business acumen.

As change accelerates at an unprecedented pace, sharpening business acumen has become a strategic imperative. In this blog post, we explore why it matters now more than ever.

Human history, especially that of business, is a record of actions, their consequences and repercussions. Many leaders delay action as they are caught up in the ‘analysis paralysis’ syndrome. Such vacillation often results in defeats due to an opponent’s ‘surprise attacks’.  To counter this, a quick and full grasp of the whole situation helps you gain advantage, sustain momentum, seize initiative and leads to victory at lower costs.

What is the secret of ‘seizing decisive initiative’? Experts and books often list 100 or more qualities. All these can be distilled into one word and that is ‘ACUMEN’. (Please see figure below - ‘Infodistillery for Acumen’ ). A Google snippet defines acumen as “quickness, accuracy and keenness of judgment or insight”. Such judgements or insights can only come to those who have holistic perspectives to comprehend, assimilate and explore new possibilities. They master all the factors from multiple disciplines that influence judgement. 

To avoid the uncertainties inherent in human affairs, management gurus took to a scientific approach to business because of the attractiveness of ‘cause and effect’ – it was easy-to-understand, experiment with and practise. But now, the scientific path itself is in disarray. Scientists have become aware of the "special ignorance about disorder in the atmosphere, in the turbulent sea, in the fluctuations of wildlife population, oscillations of the heart and the brain………….when chaos begins, classical science stops”, as Glein says in his book titled ‘Chaos’. Scientists now focus on chaos as the theme of their research. Now there is chaos all around and education and other systems remain as they were in the stable era.

No wonder then, it is reported in a Cisco-study that “93% of IT and business executives have a talent gap that prevents business transformation. 42% say business acumen is their biggest skill gap. No other skill gap reaches those numbers.” (Emphasis added).

What are the reasons for the Acumen gap?

The first and foremost reason is the gaps in education. To get an idea of the enormous quantum of the gap, run a Google search of “why a large number of academic toppers fail in career and life”. You will find alarming facts. If the toppers stumble, you can imagine the fate of those with average scores. 

The question is very candidly answered by Venkateswara Institute: “Toppers fail in life because life is unpredictable, throwing up unforeseen challenges which we rarely study in class. They are impractical because they believe life is smooth sailing without hiccups, while life is a roller-coaster with unpredictable ups and downs”. The gap is also evident in the fact that the percentage of those with higher degrees is very low among the start-up founders and unicorns.

Aspirations  Courage Understanding Mindfulness Empathy Networking

It is important to note that, business acumen and success are not necessarily dependant on qualifications and academic scores. Thomas Edison says: “The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.” All three factors contribute to raising ‘acumen’. The proof of Edison’s dictum is in reports that many billionaires, including founders of Apple, Microsoft and Facebook, do not have degrees. 

How to fill the Acumen Gap? Practice……………

The sources for honing acumen are a holistic outlook, wide-ranging interests and a yen for creativity. One must interpret and assimilate basic concepts, explore innovations and possibilities of change. In short, the focus should be on innovation and creativity. One should try to continuously focus on changing oneself, company, society and even the world!

The definition of ‘acumen’ uses the words ‘judgement and insight’. An educationist avers that to get these outcomes, education and upbringing should include aim to develop both the right brain and left brain. The current emphasis is mostly on the left side focusing on STEM - science, technology engineering and mathematics. Insights and intuition, in which acumen originates, are more influenced by the right-side disciplines like arts, sports, hobbies, socialisation and  cultural pursuits. The scope of educational curricula should be expanded to include these. The routine nature of work and workloads also inhibit creativity. There should be some ‘free time’ for creative experimentation and brainstorming.                                            

………………..Playfulness 

The words creativity, insights and intuition related to acumen may induce a negative response in some leading them to conclude, ‘’no, it is not for me” as they bring to mind a serious atmosphere as in some laboratories.  It need not be so. As said above, simply find some free time and tinker with ideas. Remember you are gifted with creativity. As a child you created several craft items and spoke about new ideas that amazed everyone. Psychologists say that 100% of children are creative and that this percentage drops down to seven by at age 10. Only 2% of adults are creative. What accounts for such a fall in creativity? In one word ‘tension’. Children are ‘playful’ and free from tension allowing ideas to flow freely.

Does this mean executives and other professionals should become ‘playful’? Yes indeed! 

Take lessons from scientists and research scholars engaged in the most serious, expensive and risky research. The highest hallmark of creativity and innovativeness is the 'Nobel Prize'. Listen to the voices of Nobel Laureates. According to Walter Isaacson, “throughout his life Albert Einstein  would retain the intuition and the awe of a child………." He further reveals that Einstein wrote a letter to his friend saying, "people like you and me never grow old…….we never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born”. A press note from the Nobel Academy about the youngest Nobel Laureates Geim and Novoselov says: “Playfulness is one of their hallmarks………one always learns something in the process and, who knows, you may even hit the jackpot.”  The report also states that Geim and Novoselov enjoy playing around in the lab, especially on Friday afternoons when they like to try fun, crazy experiments.

 

And now, a few exercises for monitoring progress in raising insights, intuition and, finally, acumen.

• Make free time for your self-development.
• Monitor your levels of relaxation, playfulness and tension.
• Carefully and with an open mind study the ‘Infodistillery for Acumen” design in the figure above.
• Monitor weekly your progress on each factor in the outermost circle specifically the acumen enhancers, indicated by the arrows towards middle circle.
• Keep a diary to note new ideas that come to mind and try to note benefits like insight, intuition etc. that are identified by arrows from the middle circle to the innermost circle  
• Try to develop an idea into a working proposition to improve performance.
• Participate in conferences, seminars and informal brainstorming sessions and note new ideas.
• Write and publish papers in trade or academic journals.

Whenever you read, listen and do something vigilantly try to relate it to your work or a project and distill insights for improvement. The initial way is to use this elementary flow: 

Data > Information > Knowledge > Intelligence > Wisdom > Acumen 

There are many other sources of vision, creativity and acumen like nature, memoirs of star wizards, on-the-job insights, lists of new patents, academic papers and, above all, unmet needs of humanity.

 

Wizards of the World!

Ignite and Inspire Minds to Boost Acumen for New

Wonders of World

 [Note: Reposting our blog with an update given that in the Age of AI, with its unprecedented pace of change, the need for business acumen is greater than ever.]