While some organizations define business acumen as knowledge of business terminology specific to their organization and even business skills such as communication here is the broader definition of Business Acumen:

Business Acumen is understanding the business entity as a whole with different yet interrelated drivers of success AND understanding of the financial expression of business performance.

There are different functions within each organization and different processes. Business Acumen is understanding how all of these functions and processes come together, how the organization operates, makes money and what financial numbers mean.

For a non-financial person, looking at many, many numbers and trying to make sense out of them, it can be quite overwhelming. Let’s make it simple. Let’s imagine that you decided to run a Lemonade Stand.