Effective leadership requires both interpersonal skills and business acumen. The College of Business Administration defines Business Acumen as a deep and applicable understanding of how a business achieves its goals and objectives. A person with strong business acumen is able to understand and explain: How does the business make money? What is a person's individual contribution and role in this? What are the different elements that make a certain action work or not work?
Business Acumen is not a single skill, but a much broader set of competencies that require understanding across multiple aspects of business:
Leadership Skills
Market Orientation
Financial Acumen
Strategic Thinking
Analytical and Logical Thinking
Computing and Technology
By graduation, College of Business Administration (CBA) students seeking a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration degree in the 2019-2020 catalog and later are required to participate in approved Business Acumen events on/off campus or virtual. Students who began Winthrop as a new student are required to attend eight (8) events and students who transfer to Winthrop are required to attend six (6). CBA Faculty/Staff will sponsor events on and off campus, live virtual events and pre-recorded events. All approved Business Acumen events will include the "BAM" logo (shown above). Some events may also be university approved cultural events. Types of Business Acumen events:
In-Person Events (on or off campus, physical or virtual)
To earn credit for attending an in-person event, you must be present for the entire event. Late attendees will not be counted if arriving more than 15 minutes late from the start time. There will either be a check-in list to write your name and CWID, or there will be a monitor with a card-swipe.
Pre-Recorded Events (Blackboard Course)
To earn credit for viewing a pre-recorded event, a short supplemental quiz is required
with a pass rate of 80%. The pre-recorded videos are located in the My Organization
section of your Blackboard. The course is titled "CBA Business Acumen Program." CBA Business Acumen Program-Blackboard Course Instructions (360kb -pdf)
Students only receive one (1) credit for attending a Business Acumen event unless otherwise stated on the Business Acumen event calendar.
Students will not receive additonal credit for attending the same event more than once.
Business Acumen Calendar - The calendar of events is now available; this list will continue to grow as new events are approved.
The purpose of the Business Acumen petition process is to allow students to earn Business Acumen credit for events that are organized outside of Winthrop University and the College of Business Adminsitration in the current or previous semester.
Petitions may be submitted by e-mail to Sarah Kesler or submitted in-person to Student Services at 226 Thurmond Building.
All petitions are reviewed by the Business Acumen Advisory Committee. The submission deadline for petitions is according to the BAM Committee meeting schedule (seen on the Home Page for Business Acumen).
In all cases, once a petition is approved or denied by the Business Acumen Advisory Committee, the decision will be sent to the student by e-mail. A copy of the approved petition will be kept by CBA Student Services at 226 Thurmond Building.
A student reserves the right to appeal a decision made by the Business Acumen Advisory Committee. Students may request to appeal a decision by e-mailing the Director of External Relations. The Director will assist the student to being the appeal process.
The College is working to integrate the Business Acumen program and DegreeWorks so students can quickly determine how many Business Acumen credits they have earned. At this time, students should contact the Student Services office to receive an update.
September 11th - For events on or after September 22nd
September 25th - For events on or after October 6th
October 9th - For events on or after October 25th
October 30th - For events on or after November 13th
If you would like to also apply for Cultural Event credit, here is the link to that process: https://www.winthrop.edu/culturalevents/approval-process.aspx
Live Virtual Events
Live virtual events may be streamed on Zoom or another university approved virtual events platform such as Blackboard Collaborate or Microsft Teams. You will have the following responsibilities:
Pre-Recorded Events
Self-created video recordings of events may be shown in Blackboard if supplemented with quizzes. Event organizers who elect this option will be have the following responsibilities:
In-Person Events
Events may be held in-person if they meet all of the University guidelines. For more information, please refer to the Office of University Events webpage. You will have the following responsibilities:
For additional information and questions, contact:
Sarah Kesler - CBA Student Services
225 Thurmond Building