Skill set Score

Strategy 0%

A
Marketing 0%

B
Commercial 0%
management
C
Operations 0%

D
Finance 0%

E
Leadership 0%

F
Organizational 0%
skills

G
Problem-solving 0%

H
Self-management 0%
I
Total score 0%
Strategy skills span different forms of strategic decisions, including acquisitions, alliances and investment, and also general
awareness of competitors and the global and economic environments. Strategy skills also entail helicopter thinking,
storytelling, and risk and uncertainty analysis.
The hallmark of strategy skills is that they deal with particularly complex and often ambiguous factors – and require iterative
and holistic thinking about the issues.
Marketing begins with the customer and market awareness and then moves on into the phases of developing a marketing
strategy (for example market segmentation, market research, market and product development, selling, and life-cycle
management).
Marketing skills have a very close relationship with strategy skills.
Commercial management covers contract management and it also covers targeting goals, margin management and contract
management. Business cases, project appraisal and business planning are all infrastructure processes that need to be
mastered. Commercial management has particularly close links with financial skills and strategic skills.

Operations skills are highly diverse, focusing on projects, processes, technology/IT, resource management/re-engineering.
They also include benchmarking as a process skill. Acquisition integration inevitably requires a multitude of these skills.
Finance entails analytical skills (financial awareness, understanding company accounts, forecasting and budgeting) through
to process skills like financial planning, cost management and value management. In addition at a commercial level we
consider cash-flow management, and linked to strategy skills, we have turnaround.
Leadership takes us into the softer skills areas – interspersed skills such as listening, empathizing and energizing through to
process skills like chairing, change management and coaching.
Leadership skills also have a close relationship with strategy skills.

Organizational skills extend the softer, interpersonal competencies into the cross-cultural arena, including delegating,
influencing, interviewing, networking and teamworking. We also see some more process-based skills here like
organizational design, organizational and people planning, performance appraisal and recruiting and training.
Report writing is another important skill to be developed.

Problem-solving requires a range of mental capacities including ‘alien thinking’, brainstorming, creativity, imagination, and
the ability to deal with challenges. Option generation (which is clearly linked with the strategy skills) plays a critical role too.
Self-management covers a diversity of skills, from managing your drive, energy management and learning, through to
managing issues (like prioritization). Stress and time management are also imperative in order to be fully effective.
NB: if you would like to work out
your score by each category, divide
each score by the following quotient,
and then multiply by 20, to get a
percentage figure.
– Strategy ÷ 13
– Marketing ÷ 9
– Commercial management ÷ 9
– Operations ÷ 12
– Finance ÷ 10
– Leadership ÷ 13
– Organizational skills ÷ 12
– Problem-solving ÷ 9
– Self-management ÷ 13
A Strategy skills Rating D
1 Acquisitions appraisal 32
2 Acquisitions and deal-making 33
3 Alliances 34
4 Competitor awareness 35
5 Divestment 36
6 Economic awareness (macro) 37
7 Economic awareness (micro) 38
8 Global awareness 39
9 Helicopter thinking 40
10 Regulatory awareness 41
11 Risk and uncertainty analysis 42
12 Storytelling 43
13 Strategic thinking
0 E
B Marketing skills Rating 44
14 Brand management 45
15 Customer awareness 46
16 Life-cycle management 47
17 Market awareness 48
18 Market development 49
19 Market research 50
20 Market segmentation 51
21 Product development 52
22 Selling 53
0
C Commercial management Rating F
23 Business cases 54
24 Business planning 55
25 Contract management 56
26 Margin management 57
27 Negotiation 58
28 Performance analysis 59
29 Project appraisal 60
30 Targeting goals 61
31 Tendering 62
0 63
64
65
66
Operations skills Rating G Organizational skills
Acquisition integration 67 Cross-cultural skills
Benchmarking 68 Delegation
Buying 69 Influencing
Controlling 70 Interviewing
Information collection 71 Networking
IT awareness 72 Organizational design
Outsourcing 73 Organization and people planning
Process management 74 Performance appraisal
Project management 75 Recruiting
Re-engineering 76 Report writing
Resource management 77 Teamworking
Technology awareness 78 Training
0
Finance skills Rating H Problem-solving
Budgeting 79 Alien thinking
Cash-flow management 80 Brainstorming
Cost management 81 Building
Credit control 82 Challenging
Financial awareness 83 Creativity
Financial planning 84 Imagination
Forecasting 85 Option generation
Turnaround 86 Problem diagnosis
Understanding company accounts 87 Questioning
Value management
0 I Self-management
Leadership skills Rating 88 Action planning
Chairing 89 Being interviewed
Change management 90 E-mail management
Coaching 91 Energy management
Direction setting 92 Drive
Empathizing 93 Learning
Energizing 94 Presentations (making them)
Facilitation 95 Prioritization
Listening 96 Proactivity
Motivating 97 Self-awareness
Policy setting 98 Self-development
Political awareness 99 Stress management
Stakeholder management 100 Time management
Summarizing
0
Rating
5 = very strong indeed
4 = strong
3 = moderately strong
2 = not so strong
1 = weak

0
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