Has the amount of acronyms and terms in the corporate market confused you?
You’re not alone. It is quite common for young professionals when entering the labor market to feel lost with the corporate vocabulary which is full of jargon and terms in English.
With that in mind, we created this glossary with the top 15 corporate market vocabularies that every professional needs to know to be prepared for meetings and official announcements. Follow along!
1 – ASAP
Widely used in emails and instant messages, the term ASAP is an abbreviation of “as soon as possible”.
This is one of the terms that can generate more doubts in those who are still getting used to the corporate vocabulary, after all, it is almost never used outside this environment.
Most of the time, it is related to tasks that need to be carried out with a certain urgency and at a higher level of priority than other deliveries.
2 – Benchmarking
Widely used by Marketing and Strategic Planning professionals, the term “benchmarking” can be translated literally as “comparative analysis”.
It is used in corporate vocabulary when a person or team performs a competitor analysis, comparing strategic points of your company with competitors.
3 – B2B
The term is an abbreviation of “business to business” and refers to business-to-business transactions, i.e., a business that sells products or services to another business, rather than to individual consumers.
4 – B2C
It can be easily confused with the previous term, but in this case it refers to “business to consumer”, indicating transactions between a company and final consumers. For example, when we buy a product in a store or online, we are involved in a B2C transaction.
5 – Break-even point
The term break-even point is widely used in corporate vocabulary when it comes to startups and product launches.
It is the point at which a business’s revenues equal its expenses. In other words, it is the moment when the company has no profit or loss, it only covers its costs.
6 – Commodity
It refers to goods that are considered interchangeable with other goods of the same type, and that have little differentiated value, such as oil, soy, gold, among others.
7 – Compliance
It means acting in accordance with a specific wish or command, or in accordance with certain policies, rules or regulations. In business, it refers especially to conformity with laws and regulations internal and external to the company.
8 – CRM
The acronym stands for Customer Relationship Management. In other words, it is a customer relationship management strategy focused on understanding and anticipating customer needs.
It also refers to technological systems that help companies organize and manage customer interactions.
In corporate vocabulary, the role of CRM has become so vital for organizations in the people-centric era that many companies have 100% CRM-focused areas.
9 – Fine Tuning
It refers to the process of making minor modifications to a product, service, or strategy to optimize its performance or efficiency.
10 – Follow up
It means to continue monitoring. It can be the act of checking the status of a project, giving feedback after a meeting, or any follow up action after an event or communication.
11 – Kickoff
Refers to the initiation or launch of a project or initiative. It is often used to describe the first meeting that marks the beginning of a project.
12 – Know How
Practical knowledge or expertise in a particular subject or activity. In corporate vocabulary, it is often associated with the ability to perform specific tasks or solve complex problems.
13 – Pivot / Pivoting
It means to change direction while maintaining a fixed point. In the corporate world, it refers to a fundamental strategic change, such as when a company decides to change its business model or market focus.
14 – Team Building
The process of helping a group work more effectively and cohesively. Often associated with activities and exercises that foster collaboration and trust among team members.
15 – Turnover
It can refer to the employee turnover rate in a company or turnover (such as sales). In the context of HR, this is when an employee leaves the company and is replaced by another.
In conclusion,
As we have seen, the labor market has its own language, with most terms derived from the English language. For this and other reasons, it is very important to have a command of Business English.
And now that you’re already feeling more confident with
the corporate vocabulary, how about going even deeper in terms of the labor market? Check out this artificial intelligence glossary and master the key AI concepts!