Glossary of business and management terms

The following special terms are used in commercial business and the management of large organisations such as corporations.

Abbreviations

24x7
BPO - Business process outsourcing
CAO - Chief Accounting Officer
CEO - Chief Executive Officer
CFO - Chief Financial Officer
CIO - Chief Information Officer, Chief Investment Officer and Chief Innovation Officer
CISO - Chief Information Security Officer
CMO - Chief Marketing Officer
COB - Close of business
COO - Chief Operating Officer
CPO - Chief People Officer also Chief Procurement Officer
CSA - Customer Service Advisor
CTO - Chief Technical Officer
CLO - Chief Legal Officer
CSW - Completed Staff Work
CxO - Any of the above chief officers, x being a placeholder. Chief [Placeholder] Officer.
EBITDA - Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization
EOB - End of business (day), i.e., by 5:00/6:00p in the U.S. (same as Close of Business)
EOD - End of day
FTE - full-time equivalent
FY - fiscal year
HIBBIS - Heads in Beds, Butts in Seats (Used in the hotel industry)
HR - human resources
KPI - Key performance indicators
NDA - Non-disclosure agreement
PCP - Previous corresponding period (Used when comparing sales over corresponding periods)
RFI - Request for Information (about goods/services to be supplied)
RFP - Request for Proposal
RFQ - Request for Quote
RFX - Request for information, proposal, or quotation, x being a placeholder
POS - point of sale
R&D - Research and Development
RIF - Reduction in Force
ROI - return on investment
SBU - Strategic Business Unit
SME - Subject Matter Expert / also Small to Medium Enterprise
TCO - total cost of ownership
USP - Unique Selling Proposition/Point
VP - Vice president
WC - Week Commencing
WE - Week Ending
YoY - Year over Year (current vs prior)
YTD - Year to date

Nouns

50,000 foot view: Highest management overview
30,000 foot view: Program management view
Assessment -
Bandwidth -
Benchmarking/Benchmark: Measuring against
Best practice: Tried and tested methology/process
Best practice methodology -
Bottleneck: Where a process is held up
Blue sky thinking: Idealistic or visionary ideas - not always with practical application (source: BBC)
Cascade: Array of possible actions to take in response to a problem: protocol
Change -
Check in the box - complete the task
Chit -
Coach/Couch the idea -
Compensation actions -
Competitive advantage -
Conflict resolution -
Constraints -
Core competencies -
Core values -
Cost avoidance -
Cost reduction -
Cost transformation -
Cracker jack -
Critical thinker -
Cutting edge practices - "up to date", new methods
Dashboard -
Deliverable/s - end product
Diagnosis -
Downsize - reduce the number of employees through a layoff
End-user perspective: What a customer thinks of a product or service or how they feel having to or after using a product service. What is thought about one of your items or services sold by a third party
Enterprise -
Excellence -
Flavor of the month - the current popular activity/person as directed by the company/client/management.
Fire fighter -
Game changer -
Game theory -
Gatekeeper -
Golden handshake -
Golden parachute -
Governance -
Headhunter -
Hub: an idea which other ideas are linked to
Income pressures -
Joined-up thinking: Discussing the viewpoints of each organization and coming to an agreement or compromise
Individual contributor -
Leadership -
Lean forward and Lean back media
Learning experience -
Line of sight -
Low-hanging fruit: Tasks that have the greatest positive effect for the least effort, used when promoting new projects to show the advantages.
Mad as a hornet -
Mastery -
Matrix organization -
Metrics Milestones -
Momentum -
Moving target -
Nesting (process)|Nesting -
Not invented here -
Initiative -
Individual contributor -
One belly button to push: Reduced number of suppliers
Operational excellence
Outcomes -
Paradigm shift -
Partnership -
Positive Momentum -
Practical application -
Process -
Process management -
Product / service environment -
Raft of measures: A collection of proposals or schemes
Recommendation -
Requirements -
Revenue growth -
Revenue mix -
Rightsize -
Seat at the table -
Showcase -
Show stopper -
Talent - employees
Tent pole: the task or item most likely to delay a project or consume the most resources
Six Sigma -
Silo (Vertical and Horizontal) -
Silver bullet: One solution for everything
Stakeholders: every group or individual affected by the outcome of a decision
Standards -
State of the art -
Superior advantage/performance -
Supply chain -
Synergy -
System -
Teamwork -
Thought leader -
Touchpoints -
Under-pinning: The foundations of an idea, which helps another related scheme or proposal
Unique selling proposition (USP)
Value added -
Womb to tomb: An idea or program that is killed before it has a chance to grow or flourish
Win-win solution: Providing a product or service which makes everyone happy

Verbs

Action -
Attract -
Baked In: Same as "included," in principle. Something which has been "baked in" is implied to be impossible to remove.
Boil the Ocean: An effort or task which is perceived by the speaker to be impossible or impractical.
Build Capacity: Take actions which produce no useful output immediately, but increase the amount of useful work which can be done in the future.
Call out -
Capture -
Champion -
Circle Back -
Circle the wagons
Collaborative -
Connect the dots -
Cover all directions of the compass: Try to make things acceptable for all stakeholders
Create the storyboard: Outline what the solution will look like
Deep dive: Get into the detail
Deliver -
Dialogue -
Differentiate -
Drill Down –
Eating one's own dog food: Use the same product that is sold to your customers, especially if it's a bad product
Drink the Kool Aid - (from the Jonestown Massacre)
Emerge/Emerging -
Enhance -
Escalate -
Evolve -
Execute -
Exploit -
Facilitate -
Forge -
Foster -
Generate -
Grow -
Have the vendor in our pocket: Keep a vendor / contractors paid
Highlight -
Ideate -
Impact -
Implement -
Incentivize -
Inspire -
Integrate -
Intervene -
Land and expand: To sell a small solution and then grow it within the client's environment
Leverage -
Manage -
Mature
Monetize
Moving forward: Making progress on an idea or scheme
Onboarding -
Partner -
Pick the low-hanging fruit: Go for the easiest option
Ping -
Power to the elbow: Get additional backup information to make your case stronger
Pushing the envelope: Going outside normal boundaries to achieve a target or goal (such as exceeding specifications)
Reach out -
Re-engineer -
Re-use -
Scale up -
Simplify -
Sing from the same hymn sheet: Show a united front or everyone understanding and saying the same thing to customers or service users
Snap a pool cue -
Spearhead -
Strategic plan -
Strategize -
Stratic -
Sugarcoating -
Synergize -
Table that -
Tackle -
Think outside the box -
Throw a curve -
Touch base -
Touch base: To meet up with a colleague to discuss progress (from baseball)
Transform -
Tread Lightly-
Unify -
Utilize -
Vet -

Adjectives

Actionable -
Authored -
Cross-Functional - resume jargon, music to management's ears
Customer-centric -
Dynamic-
In the loop - knowing what's going on and being kept informed
Innovative -
Geographically dispersed -
Granular -
High-level -
Holistic -
Nimble -
Off the shelf - buying in a product or service already completed
Results-driven -
Revolutionary -
Robust -
Scalable -
Seamless -
Superior -
Sustainable -
Thoughtful -
User-centric -
Win-win -

Adverbs

Impactfully -
In the weeds - view by staff who actually do the work
Synergistically -

References

"A glossary of business terms", Business English, 2004, ISBN 9780764124440

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