Image by krossbow via Flickr
In these challenging economic times, the importance of having commercially aware staff has been brought into sharp focus. When I worked for Virgin Active (many years ago), the CEO would hold a monthly meeting in which he’d share with all his staff the latest facts and figures; milestones passed and targets yet to be achieved. As someone with a background in sales I always appreciated this, but many of my colleagues would grumble about attending, believing that because they worked in customer service, or marketing they didn’t need to understand how well the company was performing, or what the current EBITDA was.
Unfortunately, this attitude can be found in many organisations, particularly larger ones, and can be hugely damaging. Sales people lacking in commercial awareness may end up passing on goods or services at a loss to the company, whilst still managing to achieve their own targets. Customer service reps may habitually give away more value than the company can really afford. Developers may spend valuable time on a project that their employer will struggle to bring to market, yet all these staff may still wrongly believe they are doing what’s best for their employer; worse still, they maybe unwittingly creating unnecessary work for colleagues in other departments – especially in organisations where ‘siloing’ is the norm. All this leads to inefficiency, and ultimately affects the bottom line.
Commercial awareness goes beyond just understanding the financial position. It means ensuring that all staff understand their leadership’s vision and are working together to achieve the same goals. It means each department engaging the others when making decisions. It means working smart, for everyone’s benefit. It means seeing the bigger picture.
Phoenix run a challenging, business specific and highly practical commercial awareness programme. We can also help leaders and managers communicate their vision more effectively, and think more strategically. For more information, please get in touch.
Over the past 18 months, Phoenix have had the pleasure of delivering training in one of the least well known Gulf States, the Sultanate of Oman. However, whilst it may not have the global status awarded its more famous neighbours – Dubai and Saudi Arabia – it more than holds its own in terms of culture, history and hospitality.
Delivered over six days, in two separate sessions, each participant has also been required to build their own portfolio, recording every time they have had the opportunity of putting their newly learnt skills into practice. In addition, they all delivered a range of developmental team events and presentations which were observed by myself and one of our Senior consultant’s, Richard John. I am delighted to say that the standard was extremely high indeed and the take up of skills was even better than we could have expected.
