Seeing the bigger picture through business finance
We often hear: “You can’t compare apples and oranges.”
But in business finance, especially through business acumen training, comparing the incomparable is exactly what leaders, managers, and accountants are trained to do. Every day, they weigh investments, departments, and initiatives that couldn’t be more different and decide where resources create the most value.
Klas Mellander, in his classic Apples & Oranges: Everything You Need to Understand Business Finance, reminds us: “It is said that one cannot compare apples and oranges … but that is exactly what accountants are supposed to do.”
At Celemi, we take this wisdom a step further. We help global organizations train employees at all levels to see how their decisions impact the bigger picture of value creation. Using gamified business acumen training, we make business finance tangible, memorable, and actionable.
Here’s why this mindset shift matters and how you can bring it to life in your organization.
Why financial literacy training matters beyond the finance team
Every business is a value chain. Every activity, every decision, every cost is a piece of the puzzle, and yet resources are finite.
How do you decide whether to invest in R&D, speed up customer deliveries, reduce headcount, or offer deeper discounts to win a deal?
The answer: business acumen and financial literacy.
By translating everything - materials, labor, services, overhead, even customer satisfaction - into the common language of money, we can see which activities create value and which simply add cost.
That’s the beauty of business finance simulations: they make the intangible tangible. Employees practice making tradeoffs, measuring impact, and seeing the ripple effects of decisions before they play out in the real world.
A mindset shift across the organization
Even if you’re not in finance, your decisions affect the company’s cash flow, EBIT, and bottom line. Consider:
- How you prioritize your time.
- How much inventory you order.
- Whether you push for discounts or focus on adding value.
- How quickly you follow up with customers on overdue payments.
A strong financial acumen training program helps everyone, not just finance leaders, see the connection between their actions and the company’s financial performance.
Instead of thinking: "That’s not my job - I just focus on my part" employees start asking:
- How does my work contribute to value creation?
- Where am I adding costs without adding value?
- What is the real financial impact of what I deliver?
When your workforce learns to “compare apples and oranges,” they become true contributors to growth and profitability.
Real-world example: Building a cash and profit culture
A global manufacturing leader with approximately 40,000 employees across 60 sites worldwide faced a daunting challenge: four straight years of negative free cash flow and no end in sight.
They needed to shift the culture fast, embedding a cash mindset in every decision.
The objective:
Short-term: Embed cash-conscious decisions to secure liquidity. Medium-term: Improve EBIT and maximize positive free cash flow. Long-term: Instill sustainable habits and practices at all levels.
The solution:
Celemi deployed Apples & Oranges Manufacturing, our business finance simulation, to 3,000 senior managers worldwide. Delivered in 18 countries and 30 sites, the program launched just three weeks after contract signing, a testament to how quickly scalable, gamified training can reach large audiences.
The outcome:
The business acumen training initiative sparked a cultural shift and led to dramatic improvements in cash position, proof that when leaders understand how to compare apples and oranges, they make better decisions.
Why use business simulations?
Business simulations are a proven, risk-free way to:
- Build financial literacy: Teach employees to read P&L, balance sheets, and cash flow statements.
- Develop business acumen: Help managers see the big picture and make better strategic trade-offs.
- Align teams: Ensure everyone is working toward the same KPIs, from profitability to customer satisfaction.
- Drive engagement: Interactive, gamified learning is more engaging and memorable than traditional training.
Employees leave simulations with an “aha!” seeing how their daily actions connect to the company’s strategic goals and financial performance.
Seeing the whole orchard
At Celemi, we believe that business finance is not just about numbers. It is about making smarter, faster decisions at every level of the organization.
When your workforce learns to compare apples and oranges, everyone wins. They stop focusing narrowly on their own tree and start seeing the whole orchard. For more in depth reading check out this white paper from Harvard business publishing Three core business-acumen skills leaders need today
Ready to build business acumen in your team?
If this sparked ideas, or if you’d like to explore how your team can benefit from financial literacy training for employees, we’d love to hear from you.
At Celemi, we help organizations turn financial literacy into business impact through business simulation games, gamified business training, and facilitated learning solutions that are engaging, practical, and scalable.
Request a copy of Apples & Oranges: Everything You Need to Understand Business Finance or Start a conversation: https://celemi.com/contact
When everyone learns to compare apples and oranges, everyone wins. Start seeing the whole orchard today.
Let’s talk about making business acumen everybody’s business.
Shared by Kjell Lindqvist, CEO of Celemi. At Celemi, we are dedicated to helping organizations around the world build financial literacy and business acumen at scale