The Missing 33%: The Commercial Muscle That Lifts You Into the C-Suite

Most leaders rise on two strengths: they deliver results, and they lead people. Then careers stall. Smart, well-liked, consistently high performers hit an invisible ceiling and wonder why they’re not moving into the C-suite.

The pattern is consistent. At senior level, boards don’t reward activity; they reward value creation. Independent research shows that companies that actively reallocate resources outperform those that don’t. This is a great reminder that executive work is really disciplined capital allocation, not busywork. McKinsey & Company

That’s where the often-missing third capability comes in: commercial acumen; the habit of linking choices to profit, cash, and execution capacity, quickly enough to steer the business. As Susan Colantuono popularised in her talk on the “Missing 33%,” this capability is under-taught even to strong operators (the idea originated in research on women’s advancement, but the skill is universal). TED

Commercial acumen isn’t a finance degree. It’s fluency. It’s seeing the levers (price, volume, mix, cost-to-serve), quantifying the trade-offs for margin and cash, and making a crisp recommendation with risks named and next steps owned. Crucially, it’s also outside-in: setting your status quo in real market context; what customers want now, how competitors are moving, what’s happening in the channel, and whether your category is growing.

Why this gap trips people up

Early and mid-career success is built on execution. You get noticed for shipping, fixing, and keeping teams motivated. None of that disappears but at executive altitude the emphasis flips. Senior decisions are about resource allocation: where to place people, time, and money for the highest return, and what to stop so the important work can happen. If your proposals don’t make those trade-offs explicit, they read as requests for permission rather than leadership.

Speed matters, too. Most organisations don’t lack opinions; they suffer from drift. Executives who can cut to the financial heart of a choice (what this means for the P&L, for cash, and for the capacity of real teams) unlock decisions. Over time, that’s what builds trust and influence.

What commercial acumen looks like in practice

Carry a simple lens into any senior conversation:

• P&L (Value): What happens to revenue, gross margin, contribution? What’s most sensitive: price, volume, or variable cost?

• Cash (Funding): Capex or opex? Any working-capital effects? When do we get the cash back?

• Capacity (Execution): Which teams carry the load? What stops to make room? What risks and timeline are realistic?

  
  

You don’t need a 40-tab model. One clear page framed this way is often enough to move a room. Add a line of market context, i.e. customer reality, competitor direction, category trend, and your recommendation shifts from hopeful to inevitable.

Examples of the tone shift when that lens is present:

• Pricing

  From: “Competitors raised price; we should too” 

  To: “A modest price rise with a small volume risk lifts contribution by $2million. We’ll protect top accounts with a loyalty offer while the category is still expanding.”

  
  

• New market

  From: “There’s demand in Market A”

  To: “A 12-week distributor test has positive unit economics after channel fees. Working-capital exposure is $500,000. Here are the go/no-go criteria.”

  
  

• Automation

  From: “We’ll save time”

  To: “This removes the equivalent of 1.4 full-time roles, improves SLA by 20%, and frees capacity for Project X. Cash payback in seven months.”

  
  

Same topics, different altitude.

If this isn’t coaching, what’s the ask?

The ask is simple: build the muscle. Not a new role, not a spreadsheet hobby, just enough commercial fluency, practised often, that your recommendations consistently land at executive altitude.

Start by getting curious about how your work shows up in the numbers. Sit with your Finance or Commercial Team for an hour and trace your product, market, or function through the P&L and cash flow. Then make one upcoming decision “numbers-first.” Don’t try to impress; try to be clear. Give leadership two or three options with the impact on P&L, cash, and capacity, and a short note on the market context around that choice. Make a recommendation. Name the risks. State what would make you pause or stop. That’s it.

The point isn’t to become a quasi-CFO. The point is to become the leader who speaks the language of value creation and does it in plain English. When you do, several things happen quickly: Finance invites you in earlier; peers ask for your view outside your lane; decisions speed up; and your reputation shifts from “strong operator” to “reliable enterprise thinker.”

Why this matters now

Markets are noisy. Capital is choosy. The organisations that thrive are relentless about moving resources toward higher-return bets and away from nostalgic habits. That discipline isn’t just a CEO thing; it’s the daily practice of a commercial executive team. If you aspire to that table, your currency is clarity: Option A creates more value than option B, here’s why, and here’s how we’ll know early if we’re wrong.

It’s also good news for careers. Many capable leaders are stalled not because they lack talent, but because no one ever made this third capability explicit. Once you see it, you can practise it. And once you practise it, your influence rises even before your title does.

A recommendation is executive-ready only when it changes P&L, cash, or capacity within a clear timeframe and reflects what is happening in the market.

That single test will improve the quality of your proposals and the speed of the decisions around you.

Further reading

• McKinsey on active resource reallocation and outperformance. McKinsey & Company

• Bain on decision-driven organisations (structure should improve decision speed and quality). Bain

• Harvard Business Publishing on financial acumen as learnable and career-advancing. Harvard Business Impact