■ above board

■ Honest and open.

■ I do not think you are being totally above board with me.

■ anecdotal information

■ Scattered stories or reports and not scientific or definitive.

■ You cannot base such an important decision on anecdotal information.

■ apple polish

■ To support slavishly every opinion or suggestion of a superior.

■ Harish has reached this position not through his competence but apple polishing.

■ armchair general

■ Someone who speaks critically, but has no experience in the field in question.

■ Joining a consultancy straight after college runs the risk of one becoming an armchair general.

■ b2b

■ Business to business. This is a way to describes commerce transactions between businesses as against between the business and the consumer.

■ Being a salesman in a b2b business is a different ball game from being a salesman in a b2c business.

■ b2c

■ Business to consumer. This is a way to describe commerce transaction between the business and the consumer.

■ Being a salesman in a b2b business is a different ball game from being a salesman in a b2c business.

■ back of the envelope (same as back of a napkin) calculation

■ A rough calculation, typically jotted down on any available scrap of paper such as the actual back of an envelope. It is more than a guess but less than an accurate calculation.

■ A simple back of the envelope calculation would tell you this project is not feasible.

■ ballpark figure

■ To make an estimate.

■ The CFO asked his HR counterpart, ‘Can you give me a ballpark figure of what next year's wage bill would be?’

■ band aid

■ A quick and temporary fix to a larger problem.

■ Raising one employee's salary when he threatens to leave amounts to putting a band aid.

■ bandwidth

■ Capacity or ability.

■ The current sales team does not have the bandwidth to manage international sales.

■ blue sky thinking

■ A thought exercise where any possibility is considered.

■ Advocates of blue sky thinking say that brainstorming in an idealized, setback-free setting allows you to focus solely on the idea, not the related obstacles or logistics. You develop the idea in a perfect, immaculate universe, and then approach the potential challenges separately.

■ bottomline

■ Bottomline is an informal term for net income. It derives from the position of net income on the income statement—it is the last line or ‘bottom line’. Thus bottom line has become a general term also meaning ‘crux’, ‘gist’.

■ The bottomline of this exercise is that the training programme if done well should add value to the business.

■ bounce an idea off someone

■ To get someone's initial impression of an idea they have not heard before.

■ Before we put it to the boss lets bounce this idea off a few others.

■ brainstorming

■ A method of quickly generating innovative ideas. A group of people is encouraged to contribute ideas and possible solutions to a given problem or situation. Ideas should be given quickly and spontaneously without criticism or feedback from the group. The aim is to encourage thinking outside the box and to break down barriers to creativity, to come up with a large number of radical ideas which can then be discussed and developed at a later stage.

■ The IT department has called for a cross-functional brainstorming session to discuss the design of the Intranet.

■ break it down

■ Provide details.

■ When the business development manager made a presentation to the committee, they asked them to break it down for them.

■ brick and mortar

■ A business with a physical location and building, as opposed to online businesses.

■ A group of traditional ‘brick and mortar’ firms were examined in order to understand how they balance strategy and operations between electronic commerce and traditional (brick and mortar) business channels.

■ bring to the table

■ The contribution (or lack thereof) that one makes to a group.

■ What do you feel you would bring to the table if you were hired for this position?

■ buy-in

■ Agreement or consent.

■ If you hope to get anything done in today's corporation, you will need management buy-in.

■ cake walk

■ Easily accomplished.

■ Preparing the annual budget is no cakewalk for the finance minister.

■ carrots and stick

■ Refers to an offer of reward countered by the threat of punishment.

■ If we are going to make this sale, we need a few more carrots and sticks.

■ chalk talk

■ A lecture, often informal, illustrated with diagrams chalked on a blackboard.

■ A PowerPoint presentation is not essential—a chalk talk will also do.

■ c-level

■ C-level is an adjective used to describe high-ranking executive titles within an organization. C, in this context, stands for chief. C-level titles include CEO (chief executive officer), CIO (chief information officer), CFO (chief financial officer) etc.

■ All C-level positions in this joint venture are occupied by expatriates.

■ close the loop

■ To follow up on and/or close out an area of discussion.

■ One of the biggest mistakes people make after receiving a favour is failing to follow up. Close the loop by sharing the outcome, even if it is bad news.

■ cob

■ Close of business, simply put, before the end of the day!

■ I will e-mail the file COB today.

■ cold call

(a) In business, it means making a sales call without a prior contact or appointment.

(b) In B-school, it is a method of teaching, where a professor randomly selects a student to discuss a business case.

(a) At one point of time Howard Schultz of Starbucks fame earned a living making cold calls for Xerox.

(b) Since Harvard Business School classes are graded primarily on class participation, being prepared is critical, especially if you receive the dreaded ‘cold call’ from the professor to ‘open’ the class by presenting your analysis of the case study.

■ commoditize

■ The act of making a process, good or service easy to obtain by making it as uniform, plentiful and affordable as possible.

■ In these days of technological innovations having become a regular affair, it does not take too much time for an exclusive service to become commoditized.

■ cook the books

■ A fraudulent attempt to falsify company records.

■ Cooking the books can fool investors for a limited time only.

■ corner office

■ An office that is located in the corner of a building. Corner offices are considered desirable because they have windows on two exterior walls, as opposed to a typical office with only one window or none at all. Corner offices are typically given to the most senior executives, the term primarily refers to top management positions.

■ Since the late 2010, five tech CEOs of Wipro, all in their forties and fifties, have quit. None of them want another burdensome stint in a similar corner-office role in this industry.

■ data point

■ An item of factual information which can be used in making a decision.

■ That most of the people who have resigned this month have been with the organization for less than a year is an important data point you should consider while analysing attrition.

■ deadwood

■ An employee that no longer contributes anything meaningful to an organization.

■ A zero-based budgeting approach to manpower planning forces you to take a serious look at the deadwood in your organization.

■ deep-dive

■ Getting into the detail.

■ I took a deep dive into Chinese market, and I do not think we will be able to move our product there.

■ deliverable

■ Final product, outcome to be achieved.

■ Top US diplomats met External Affairs minister S. M. Krishna and discussed key deliverables of President Barack Obama's visit to India.

■ drill down

■ Getting into the detail.

■ In order to accurately assess the type of candidate they needed, we had to drill down on the skill set and management experience required for the job.

■ driver

■ Factors or agents that move something forward.

■ What are the key drivers of organizational change?

■ elevator pitch

■ An elevator pitch is a short summary used to quickly and simply define a product, service, or organization and its value proposition. The name ‘elevator pitch’ reflects the idea that it should be possible to deliver the summary in the time span of an elevator ride.

■ Venture capitalists often judge the quality of an idea by the quality of its elevator pitch and will ask entrepreneurs for their elevator pitches in order to quickly weed out bad ideas and weak teams.

■ end user perspective

■ What a customer thinks of a product or service or how they feel having to or after using a product service?

■ The report provides comprehensive insights and practical outcomes for the Indian managed IT-services market from an end-user and supplier perspective.

■ fall between the cracks

■ Be neglected or overlooked.

■ Multiple reporting may lead to a lot many things falling between the cracks.

■ from day one/from scratch

■ From the beginning.

■ We designed the sales strategy from scratch.

■ functionality

■ Functions or features.

■ In the long run it will be the functionality of the equipment which will drive its sales not its sleek look.

■ gain traction

■ To gain momentum or acceptance.

■ Sony's new laptops are gaining traction in the marketplace.

■ get a handle on

■ Investigate and learn about something when very little is known beforehand.

■ I will respond to you only after I get a handle on this.

■ given a mandate

■ A command or an authorization given to someone.

■ The facilities department has been given a mandate by the management to promote usage of natural light in the office as a part of its ‘go green’ initiative.

■ golden handcuff

■ A lucrative incentive to an executive intended to discourage resignation or ensure long-term cooperation after departure.

■ Examples of golden handcuffs include employee stock options that do not vest until the employee has been with the company for several years, and contractual agreements that stipulate certain bonuses or other forms of compensation must be returned to the company if the employee leaves before a certain date.

■ golden handshake

■ A large payment made by a company to a senior executive upon termination of employment before their contract ends.

■ A sum of money, usually huge amout, given to a senior executive as a compensation for the loss of the employment, based on their long-term or excellent service.

■ golden parachute

■ A clause in an executive's employment contract specifying that a person will receive large benefits in the event that the company is acquired and the executive's employment is terminated. These benefits can take the form of severance pay, a bonus, stock options, or a combination there of.

■ Many executives find themselves well protected through the presence of golden parachute programmes that are now in place in almost every major corporate enterprise in many countries the world over.

■ go live

■ The date on which a system goes live; to make some system, which had been under development or operating in a limited test mode, fully active so that its intended users can access it.

■ The Intranet will go live on the first Monday of the next month.

■ granularity

■ Detail.

■ The granularity of the data is not enough to enable us to make a good decision.

■ handholding

■ Helping someone perform a task that, because of inexperience or incompetence, they cannot complete on their own.

■ All new employees need a few days of handholding till they become independent to do their work.

■ hard skills

■ The occupational requirements of a job.

■ Machine operation, financial procedures and sales administration are hard skills.

■ head count freeze

■ No increase in the number of people. This may result in no fresh recruitment at all.

■ The head count freeze has forced people to take a relook at their people utilization levels.

■ heads-up

■ To give prior information.

■ I thought I would give you a heads-up so that you know my point of view when Inder calls you.

■ helicopter view/30,000 ft

■ A high-level view or explanation.

■ The helicopter view is what is required to crack the toughest strategic conundrums.

■ hit the ground running

■ Get off to a brisk and successful start.

■ A good induction programme ensures that the employee hits the ground running.

■ hitting on all cylinders

■ Working at full strength; making every possible effort.

■ The factory is hitting on all cylinders to finish the orders on time.

■ hole in the wall

(a) An ATM machine.

(b) A small dingy place, especially one difficult to find.

■ I will not call that a office—it is just a hole in the wall.

■ holistic

■ Concerned with wholes rather than analysis or separation into parts.

■ Rather than opting for the firm which pays the maximum it is important that students take a holistic perspective of their career.

■ hotdesking

■ Also known as location independent working, where workers do not have their own desks, but are allocated work space according to their needs. It can be refined to mean the sharing of a desk/seat/workstation arrangement by more than one member of staff.

■ Hotdesking is a way of life for employees of Phillips India at their Gurgaon office.

■ in the loop

■ Knowing what is going on and being kept informed.

■ The HOD told the team, ‘Go ahead! With your plans but make sure that you keep me in the loop!’

■ lay-off

■ A permanent firing of one or more employees.

■ The chairman and CEO says the coming year will likely include what he calls ‘significant’ lay-offs, which analysts are predicting could put between 60,000 and 80,000 jobs on the chopping block.

■ leverage

■ How a resource can be applied to a particular environment or situation.

■ We intend to leverage our investment in office infrastructure across the country to grow our sister business units to drive profits.

■ low-hanging fruit/quick wins

■ Easy pickings.

■ India has quite a few low-hanging fruit to pluck, when it comes to making its contribution to arresting climate change.

■ method in the madness

■ A purpose in what one is doing, even though it seems to be crazy.

■ What I am doing may look strange, but there is method in my madness.

■ monetize

■ To convert into money.

■ Your idea is good but how will you monetize it?

■ my way or the highway

■ If people do not do what you say, they will have to leave or quit the project etc.

■ I tried the ‘my way or the highway’ approach to management, but it does not work for me. I began to develop more cooperative relationships with my staff, and things went much better.

■ net-net

■ The end result, the bottom line.

■ Net-net, we have not been able to solve the problem till now.

■ ombudsperson

■ A corporate ombudsperson works with employees and management by reviewing management decisions and intervening in employee–employee and employee–management disputes. Generally, the methods the corporate ombudsperson may use include responsive listening, investigation, mediation, direct resolution, and upward feedback to management. The ombudsperson allows an employee to voice their concerns and advises or counsels the employee on the best way to deal with the situation. If necessary, as is often the case in allegations of sexual harassment, for example, the ombudsperson can investigate the situation further.

■ The ombudsman issued their final decision on the case.

■ on the fly

■ Simultaneously with another activity.

■ What is common to all these health disasters is that they are all under 35—livewire, fast-trackers, on-the-fly executives.

■ on the same page

■ To have the same information and to think the same way.

■ Before the agency makes a presentation to us, let us meet to ensure that all of us are on the same page.

■ paradigm shift

■ Any major change in the generally accepted point of view.

■ Banks need to make a paradigm shift in what constitutes credit risk in lending to the SME sector.

■ parking-lot

■ To end the discussion of a particular item in a meeting with the intention of addressing it later.

■ We ran out of time and had to put Vivek's marketing ideas in the parking lot!

■ power lunch

■ Big business dealings at lunch.

■ The US secretary of state met with a team of business leaders over a power lunch!

■ proactive

■ Tending to initiate change rather than reacting to events.

■ To be a good manager, you have to be proactive in identifying problem areas.

■ pushing the envelope

■ Going outside normal boundaries to achieve a target or goal.

■ Advertisements seem to be pushing the envelope of taste everyday.

■ put a spin on

■ Modify a story to make it more favourable.

■ A good salesman knows how to put a spin to an uncomfortable query from the customer.

■ rank-and-file

■ The non-executive and non-managerial employees of a company.

■ The bravery and resourcefulness shown by rank-and-file Taj employees during the 26/11 terrorist attack has been captured in many case studies now.

■ red flag

■ Warning sign, something that demands attention or provokes an irritated reaction.

■ The minister raised a red flag over power projections saying that it was ecologically impossible.

■ reinventing the wheel

■ Create something that already exists.

■ There is no point in reinventing the wheel—it is better you spend your energy on new ideas.

■ rollout

■ The elaborate process of introducing something new.

■ The ad campaign rollout is being project managed by Rita.

■ rule of the thumb

■ Generally used but imprecise measurement.

■ The rule of the thumb is that the overheads on an employee is as much as his salary.

■ run the numbers

■ Perform a thorough quantitative analysis.

■ Running the numbers have thrown up some significant facts about the case.

■ safe harbour

■ The office bathroom; this refers to how it is often the only place one can find a moment of peace at work.

■ Are you headed for the safe harbour?

■ shelved

■ Put away, not used, not under active consideration or may never be used.

■ We have shelved your project.

■ sit across a table

■ Have a possibly confrontational meeting or a meeting where some work is planned.

■ Why do you not just sit across the table and talk over the whole issue.

■ skip-level

■ A meeting where a manager ignores the normal corporate hierarchy, jumps down a level or two, to interact with people directly.

■ Companies are going all out to address employee disillusionment, with techniques as varied as the use of ombudspersons, skip-level meetings (meeting your boss’ boss), ‘beer-bashes’ and even taking entire teams on an outdoor trips so that deep-rooted employee grouses can be understood and addressed.

■ slice and dice data

■ To rearrange or analyse in a number of different ways.

■ The data which comes out of an engagement survey has to be sliced and diced to decide on how to enhance employee engagement in the organization.

■ smoke and mirrors

■ Tricks to hide the true situation.

■ The apparent changes they have made to the compensation structure is just an exercise in smoke and mirrors.

■ soft skills

■ The cluster of personality traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that characterize relationships with other people.

■ Soft skill training is gaining more importance in the service industry.

■ square peg in a round hole

■ Misfit.

■ I have always felt like a square peg in a round hole in this organization, I think it is about time I resigned.

■ stickiness

■ The degree to which the existing use of a product or service encourages its continued use as opposed to that of a competitor.

■ We can think of increasing the price once the customer becomes sticky.

■ synergy

■ Two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable (1 + 1 > 2).

■ A merger of two oil companies, one with a superior distribution network and the other with more reserves, would have synergy and would be expected to result in higher earnings per share than previously.

■ takeaway

■ The essential points of a presentation, activity etc. that the author/presenter hopes you will take away.

■ What do you want the audience to take away from your session on diversity and inclusion?

■ thinking outside the box/lateral thinking

■ To look further and to try not thinking of the obvious things, but to try thinking beyond them.

■ Google encourages real thinking out of the box with things such as 20 per cent time, enabling engineers to spend one day a week working on projects that are not necessarily in their job description.

■ touch base

■ A request to meet again to discuss the current status of a project or task.

■ I will touch base with you another time to discuss the other case.

■ turf

■ In business, the territory or area of responsibility and authority.

■ This is my turf and I need no advice from you on how to play here.

■ up-skill

■ To improve or enhance skill levels.

■ There was a need to up-skill employees to better equip them for senior managerial and cross-functional roles.

■ what makes him tick

■ What motivates one

■ What makes her tick is the challenge in the assignment, not the money that it gets.

■ working in a silo

■ A silo is something that is kept separate or compartmentalized.

■ Independent businesses in a large business group can never leverage the strength of the group if they work in silos.

■ writing on the wall

■ Disaster or danger is imminent.

■ You should not be surprised with the failure of the project—the writing was always on the wall.

■ your take

■ Opinion, point of view.

■ What is your take on this proposed new transfer policy?

■ zero-sum game

■ A situation where if one person wins, someone else must lose.

■ Cutting a cake is a zero-sum game, because taking a larger piece reduces the amount of cake available for others.