Vocabulary for MBA.pdf

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MBA Vocabulary

For international students – June 6, 2002

Note: This work in process contains all sorts of expressions, from formal to slang, gathered from all kinds

of speakers, from Dean Sullivan to students to businesspeople. Most quotes are from real situations here at

the Business School, and I do not necessarily endorse the views of the speaker. Thanks to Mike Allen,

MBA ’01, and Ernesto Oechler, MBA '00, for reviewing, organizing, and editing this version, and to Mike

for some of the entries. Please e-mail comments, corrections, and ideas to phraseman@unc.edu . Thanks

to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Kenan-Flagler Business School for making this

list possible. © Patrick Oglesby 1997-2002. Free distribution among UNC students and staff is authorized.

110 percent - ( Noun ) Better than your best. To give more than 100% of yourself. "He gives 110

percent." -- He is committed to this project; he does more than what is required.

20-20 - ( Noun ) A particular television news magazine or nonfiction show that can be seen on a network

one night a week. "I was watching 20-20 last night and I heard that short term memory loss is a

problem for baby boomers [people born just after world war II]."

( Adjective ) The ability to see from 20 feet what a normal person can see from 20 feet, i.e.,

normal vision. "With glasses, my 20-40 vision is corrected to 20-20."

24/7 - Operating around the clock, without closing, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. "We maintain a

24/7 presence in that area." "I'm available 24/7 for anything you might need."

4.0 - Perfect grades (A is the best grade; A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, etc.) Pronounced 'Four point oh' or ‘Four

oh.’ "If you went to an inner city high school and got a 4.0 GPA, you'd probably get

downgraded to a 2.5 by employers who discount your record because they don’t think your

school is good."

501(c)(3) organization - (Noun) A charity, payments to which reduce taxable income. "Part of the

price goes to a 501(c)(3), so the buyer can deduct that part."

Access - (Verb) To obtain. To gain entrance to. "We [an art company] look at people in their late 20's.

They know it's time to take the posters off the wall. They'd like to buy art, but they don't know

how to access it. They don't want to go to the Holiday Inn by the Airport and buy sofa size art on

Sunday afternoon.” Explanation: (1) College students and recent college grads usually don't

own art -- they put cheap posters on their walls. (2) Traveling vendors offer cheap, big paintings

at "flea markets" at spots like Holiday Inns. These paintings will not gain value over the years.

The speaker’s -- Mr. Hale's -- company sponsors ways for young people to buy real art, which is

original and which might be appreciated by local artists.

Add-on - (Noun) Something that’s not essential. "Working with students is not an add-on. It's not on

the periphery for us (working with students is essential for us)." Dean Sullivan

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Affirmative action - (Noun) Policy of choosing people for jobs or schools on the basis of race or

gender. "There is a backlash against affirmative action and quotas in the US (some

people are rebelling against the concept of racial quotas)."

African-Americans - (Proper noun) A politically correct term referring to people who are descendants

of Africans. Roland West, an African-American speaker, used the term as equivalent to Black

people. Many people accept either term, but in formal writing it is more common to use 'African

American.' "The whole beach was populated by African-Americans."

Ah-ha - (Interjection) Slang expression showing a mix of surprise and happiness. “The ah-ha” can be a

fact (or analytical step) that causes the student to say "Ah-ha! Now I understand." "The capacity

need is the ah-ha of the case”: discovering that capacity is needed is what the student should

learn.

Aiding and Abetting - “To assist in the performance of a crime either before or during (but not after)

its commission. Aiding usually refers to material assistance (e.g. providing the tools for the

crime), and abetting to lesser assistance (e.g. acting as a look-out or driving a car to the scene of

the crime). Aiders and abettors are liable to be tried as accessories. Mere presence at the scene of

a crime is not regarded as aiding and abetting. It is unnecessary to have a criminal motive to be

guilty of aiding and abetting: knowledge that one is assisting the criminal is sufficient.”

http://www.xrefer.com/entry/464279 (verbatim quote): Federal investigators allege Merrill Lynch

ultimately agreed to invest in the electricity-generating barges "in spite of some internal

dissension, including a document expressing concern that it would be viewed as 'aiding and

abetting' Enron's fraudulent manipulation of its income statement."

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/yhoo/story.asp?guid=%7BE08D82CE-49DE-45E4-8064-

0C57EE0A007F%7D&siteid=myyahoo&dist=myyahoo

Airtime - (Slang with a negative connotation) Speaking in class only so the professor will notice you.

Pronounced as two words: air time. "Students compete for airtime because they believe speaking

more in class will improve their class participation grade. Ask yourself, ‘is this a story that I want

to use my airtime in class to tell?’” (Many students speak in class to help their grade without

having anything worth saying. Do you really want to spend your precious class time speaking

about something irrelevant and looking bad in front of the professor and the class just to have

some class participation?) The term originates from the broadcast media industry.

AKA - (Acronym) Also known as. "Slovakia - AKA Slovak Republic - is in Eastern Europe." "He is

known as Romeo, AKA the lady killer (His nickname is Romeo, after a Shakespearean lover,

because he is good at meeting women)."

Alphabet Soup - Large number of Federal agencies, usually identified by their initials, or acronyms.

Campbell’s makes a food product called alphabet soup, which contains pasta in the shape of

letters, and appeals especially to children. “[W]hat foreigners envy us most for is precisely the

city Mr. Bush loves to bash: Washington. That is, they envy us for our alphabet soup of

regulatory agencies: the S.E.C. [Securities and Exchange Commission], the Federal Reserve, the

F.A.A. [Federal Aviation Administration], the F.D.A [Food and Drug Administration]., the F.B.I.,

the E.P.A., the I.R.S., the I.N.S. Do you know what a luxury it is to be able to start a business or

get a license without having to pay off some official?” Thomas Friedman of the NY Times,

quoted in http://fiachra.soc.arizona.edu/blog/archives/000051.html . I remember an article

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recently, though, that claimed that the USA was something like the 16 th least corrupt country, so

Friedman may be most accurate in contrasting the USA with certain developing countries. A

good acronym finder is http://www.acronymfinder.com . If you go there and type in, for instance,

KFBS, you find the correct meaning -- but without a direct link to our web presence .

Alumni (plural)

Alumnus (singular masculine)

Alumna (singular feminine) - (Noun) Greek term meaning former students. It can also, by extension, be used

to refer to former participants in a program that is not a school. "After 9 years we have the alumni

coming back to tell the new scholars about their experience".

Anal (Anal retentive) - (Slang adjective with a negative connotation) Overly cautious, meticulous, or

overly controlling. This term is from Freudian psychology. In its proper usage people can be

referred to as "anal retentive." This psychoanalytical term has become commonly accepted in

everyday verbal usage, but it is not proper for formal written business English. In a conversation

you might hear, "If you want to wash your hands after shaking hands with everyone, [because

you believe their germs may make you sick] then you are a little too anal.” The possibility of

getting sick from shaking hands with someone seems unlikely. Therefore, to insist on washing

your hands just because you shook someone's hand is excessive.

Analysis paralysis - (Noun phrase with negative connotation) Inability to make a decision because a

person is "lost" in the data due to excessive thinking. Often implies that a person is wasting his or

her time by doing useless analysis or that the person is afraid to make a decision. "Taking the

standard deviation of the page numbers to see if it helps us get an answer is an example of

analysis paralysis."

Anne Frank - (Proper Noun) A Jewish girl who perished in the Nazi Holocaust (persecution and killing

of Jews) in Holland, but whose diaries are famous. "Exploris Museum in Raleigh will have an

exhibit about Anne Frank."

Area of opportunity - (Noun) Euphemism for 'concern' or 'problem.' "We've done surveys to identify

areas of opportunity in student life." Areas of opportunity, opportunities for improvement, or

room for improvement are all phrases that are used to indicate that something should be better. In

English, it is common to attempt to be overly polite by "softly" wording negative information.

As of - (Prepositional phrase) Beginning with (this point in time) and continuing, "As of July 1, 1999,

your visa will be invalid." (Your visa will expire at the end of June 30, 1999.) 'As of', 'beginning

with', and 'starting from' are synonyms.

Asbestos - (Noun) Building material used in the 1900s that has been proven to be medically

harmful. Property owners in the USA have spent huge sums of money to eliminate

asbestos from their buildings. "After we left Carroll Hall, it took seven months to get the

asbestos out. We must have been breathing that stuff for years."

At risk youth - (Noun phrase from sociology) Children who are in danger of not obtaining a basic

education. "We give our employees time off from work so they can tutor at risk youth"

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Attaboy - Usually, it’s a compliment given to a subordinate or child. If a young baseball player makes a

good catch or hits a home run, “attaboy” is quick praise. In a Dilbert comic strip, visible at

<http://www.dilbert.com/>, under "Comic Archive" for 12/27/02, a boss tells a worker the worker

can’t have a raise; the boss continues “All I can offer is an attaboy. The problem is: I don’t want

to cheapen the whole attaboy system.” In the Dilbert sample, “attaboy” is used as a noun and an

adjective to describe the US custom of offering praise to a subordinate, perhaps instead of a more

tangible reward. The boss in the sample says he worries that if his praise comes too frequently, it

will become meaningless (thus “cheapening the system”). I think “attaboy” comes from “That’s a

boy,” a shortened form of “That’s a good boy.” It’s used in directly addressing someone: in the

second person rather than the third. As a compliment, I’d be careful of using this. First, saying

“attaboy” to someone can sound condescending, and can indicate a superior talking to a

subordinate. I would tend not to say it to a member of my study group, Second, the word “boy”

in the South could be the subject of a book, but I’ll write this for now: in the early 1970s, I taught

in an all-Black (students) junior high in the Durham City Schools, which were still largely

segregated. We teachers, whatever our color, never called any student “boy,” not even 12-year

old seventh grade males, because of the practice that some white people had of calling even

elderly Black men “boy,” which seemed condescending. So we said “young men,” which suited

me fine, and I’ve developed the habit of looking for words other than “boy.” "Good going" or

"Way to go" are phrases I like better as compliments. "There you go" can work too, but it can

also mean "Your thinking is productive: you are on the right track in your analysis or views."

At this point - Now. "I’m going to turn the stage over to Professor Dean at this point."

ATM - (Noun - acronym) Automatic teller machines (ATM) are the banking industry's cash machines

located all over the world. "We were initially viewed by nonprofits as just an ATM; people came

along and we would give them money."

Attack the problem - (Verb phrase) Attempt to solve a problem or work to solve a problem. "The

financial data might be totally useless in helping you decide where the problem lies and how to

attack it (what approach to use to solve the problem)." "Sometimes you have to just attack the

problem (take action to solve a problem even though there is not enough information to make the

solution obvious)."

Back and forth - (Noun phrase) Informal discussion in class where speakers disagree and debate.

"There’ll be a back and forth." (Adverb) Something that is being done or discussed iteratively.

"Management is going back and forth on its decision to enter the new market."

Backbone : will; determination; courage

Back up to (Back into) - (Adverbial phrase) To arrive in reverse. Commonly used term in MBA for

figuring out what information you need to solve a problem by analyzing what information you do

have in an effort to determine what information is missing. Often, it is this missing information -

the information not explicitly given - that is need to "crack" the case. "By asking yourself the

right questions you can often back up to the numbers you need to get the final answer." More

precisely, “back up to” or “back into” can mean to begin with a conclusion and reason back to

find underlying data or premises.

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Backlash - (Noun with negative connotation) Reaction. Implies conflict. "There is a backlash against

affirmative action and quotas (a group of people are reacting negatively to race based policies.)"

Baptist - (Proper noun) A denomination within the Protestant faith. Christianity is divided into

two groups: Protestants and Catholics. Baptists are traditionally one of the most

conservative Protestant denominations. Baptists sometimes forbid drinking alcohol and

dancing. "You're not going to take a bottle of wine to someone's house if they are

Baptist." This quote comes from a guest speaker on U.S. culture.

Bait and Switch - Gain someone’s attention with something acceptable (the bait), then withdraw the

bait and switch to something different that the audience would not have been interested in. In our

class, [Jennifer Brooks] urged us not to use a “bait and switch” technique in our networking

strategy (e.g. don’t request a meeting with someone to “learn more about their position” and then,

at the meeting, hand them your resume and ask if they have any positions available). She

explained that the context of the meeting should be consistent with what we requested in our

communications. [Thanks to Seth Nore ‘04 for this message.]Explanation of the commercial

context (verbatim from a Better Business Bureau in Southern California): Unscrupulous

merchants often advertise fabulous but fake bargains just to get you to come into their store so

they can sell you something more expensive. This scheme is commonly referred to as "bait and

switch." It's simple enough: they advertise some item at a price low enough to lure you into the

store. But here's the rub: the advertised item is not for sale. The salespeople may give you any

number of reasons why you can't or shouldn't buy it . . . "there aren't any left. . ." " many

customers who bought it are dissatisfied . . ." "the product just isn't any good . . ." "you can't get

delivery for six months . . ." The truth is that these salespeople never had any intention of selling

the advertised special. They kill your desire to buy it and instead try to get you to buy the item

they had in mind from the beginning. "Bait and switch" is an unfair practice and is against the

law. Although you can't always spot bait ads in advance or know that the switch is going to

follow, there are a few steps you can take to avoid the trap. First, realize that a good salesperson

may try to persuade you to buy a better quality item or a different brand with more features at a

higher price. There is nothing illegal or unethical about this. The important thing is that you are

given a choice without undue pressure. Keep in mind, though, that if a product or service is

advertised at a price that seems too good to be true, this may be a bait ad. Then, if the merchant

refuses to show you the advertised item, to take orders for it or deliver it within a reasonable time,

disparages it, or demonstrates a defective sample of it, take this as a sign that you're probably

being "switched." Source: http://www.bbbsouthland.org/topic016.html

To be a player - Have position and power in a relationship. To "be a player" in a market is to "be a

recognized force in the market." "We are in the process of becoming a very important world

player (this organization is attempting to become known and important in the global marketplace

within its industry)."

To be about - To have as a goal. Doing something or having something as a goal can define an

organization. "Talking about interdisciplinary work: we are about doing that today", stated Dean

Sullivan. To be about something is an attempt at defining yourself according to your actions.

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