The Business of People is brought to you by:
Step Up MBA: Master Business Acumen
Use the code BUSINESSOFPEOPLE for an exclusive discount of 50% off the Step Up MBA course. Offer valid December 15th through January 16th.
Cora had spent eight years building her HR career. For the last three, she had been a Senior HR Manager at a Series B SaaS company. She'd earned a reputation as a trusted advisor.
When department heads needed help with hiring, they called Cora.
When managers struggled with performance issues, they called Cora.
When the leadership team debated culture initiatives, they called Cora.
She had frameworks for everything. She knew how to diagnose people problems, connect initiatives to company goals, and translate complex HR concepts into language leaders could understand.
So when the board pushed to add a VP of People ahead of the Series C raise, Cora felt confident she'd at least be in the conversation.
Instead, the CEO hired externally. Someone with "more commercial experience," they said.
Cora was confused. Hurt. Maybe even a little angry.
Three months later, she understood why.
The new VP—Marcus—invited Cora to join the monthly business review.
This was Cora's chance to prove she belonged at this level. She'd prepared slides on Q3 hiring progress, engagement survey results, and her plan for rolling out a new performance management system.
The CFO opened the meeting by pulling up a dashboard.
"Our CAC payback period increased from 11 to 14 months this quarter. We're burning an extra $400K per month on customer acquisition, which is compressing our runway. We need to get our LTV to CAC ratio back above 4:1, or we're going to have trouble with our valuation multiple at Series C."
The CEO turned to Marcus.
"How does headcount factor into this? What changes do we need to make in the next 90 days?"
Marcus jumped in immediately.
"We're over-indexed on customer success right now relative to our expansion revenue targets. If we shift two CS roles to sales and push back three of the planned mid-market hires by a quarter, we can reduce our cash burn by roughly $250K and still hit our retention numbers. That buys us more runway while we improve our sales efficiency metrics."
The CEO nodded.
"What about comp strategy? Are we positioned correctly to attract the AE talent we need for enterprise deals?"
Marcus continued:
"We're at 50th percentile for base but 75th percentile for variable comp, which works for our sales-led motion. The issue is our equity packages aren't competitive for the level of IC we need to close six-figure deals. We should adjust our equity bands for quota-carrying roles, which will cost us in dilution but should improve our enterprise win rate by 15-20% based on what I've seen work at similar growth stages."
Cora sat there, her carefully prepared slides suddenly feeling completely irrelevant.
She didn't just feel left out of the conversation. She literally could not follow it.
CAC payback? LTV to CAC ratios? Valuation multiples? Dilution?
She knew these were important. She'd heard the terms before. But she couldn't actually connect them to real business decisions. And she certainly couldn't use them to inform her own recommendations about hiring, comp, or team structure.
Cora realized that her confidence was built on a foundation that had gaps. Big ones.
Why business acumen matters
If you've been reading my newsletter for a while, you know that I describe strategy as being able to say "This is where we're going and how we're going to get there."
At a certain level in your career, you have to be commercially literate to be able to engage with the "how we're going to get there" part.
Commercial literacy is about comprehension—it means you understand how a business makes money, how it spends money, how it raises money, and what factors drive those decisions.
Business acumen goes one step further. It's about judgement, or knowing how to apply your understanding of how businesses work to make better decisions that increase the likelihood your company succeeds.
Both are important, but the journey starts with comprehension first.
The Four-T Playbook
Every edition, I share a proven tip, trick, tactic, or template. This time, it's a:
👉 Tip: The next time you're in a business meeting and someone uses a term you don't fully understand (CAC payback, gross margin, burn multiple, LTV:CAC ratio, runway), don't just nod along. Write it down. After the meeting, spend 10 minutes researching what it actually means and how it connects to business performance. Building commercial literacy is a daily practice, not a one-time learning event.
Final thoughts
I took JooBee Yeow's Step Up MBA earlier this month — it was exactly the course I wish I'd had earlier in my career. Even now, I found myself pausing and screenshotting succinct descriptions — like the Path to Profitability slide below — of concepts that took years to learn.
Whether you're an HR Manager building toward your first Head of People role, or a VP who wants to close gaps in your commercial fluency, this course will help equip you to build the business acumen that changes how you show up, how you're perceived, and how far you go.
Until next time,
Melissa