Business Acumen - Up Next Cohort 2025

This session focused on helping future HR executives deepen their understanding of business acumen, specifically how to think like a business leader by connecting the dots between brand, strategy and shareholder return, and organization design.

Dr. Mark Blankenship led the session, bringing his experience as a former CHRO and strategist to demystify how businesses create value and how HR can align to drive performance.

Key Takeaways

1. The Brand

• Your brand is not just your logo. It's your promise and the experience that customers expect.
• A compelling brand answers: Why do customers choose us? What makes us different?
• HR professionals should understand how the company’s employee experience and culture reinforce or contradict the external brand.

2. Strategy & Shareholder Return

• Strategy is about trade-offs. You can’t be everything to everyone.
• Every company’s strategy should be designed to deliver a specific shareholder return. This can be profit, growth, or innovation, depending on the business model.
• HR’s role is to ask: What is the business optimizing for? How does our people strategy support this aim?

3. Organization (briefly covered)

• Every organization is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. If you want different results, design differently. This includes talent, structure, and process.

In the final hour, Clyde D. Walker shared his personal experiences applying these principles in various leadership roles. His insights emphasized:

• The importance of business fluency for HR leaders to earn credibility at the executive table.
• How understanding financial levers builds stronger cross-functional partnerships.
• Ways to navigate strategic ambiguity while keeping people-centered leadership at the core.
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Mentioned Resources

Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works

The Rise of HR – Wisdom from 73 Thought Leaders (Attached)

Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? (Attached)

Reminders

• Don’t forget to re-rate yourself on the session topic.
• Schedule a 1:1 time with Dave