BizIdioms Pre-2000

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BizIdioms Post-2000 | BizEng

Pre-2000

As Advertised

Performing according to stated expectations. "Those programmers finished within budget as advertised."

ASAP As Soon As Possible. Often said as a word "a-sap." A standard request for urgent treatment, used so often in business that it has a diminished urgency. "We want those reports back ASAP."

Above-board Honest and open. "Our competitors are not completely above board with their plans."

Action item A short term goal that requires a measure of work to complete. Also, the adjective "actionable" is related, as something that needs action taken. "Let's make the revised holiday schedule an action item for our next meeting."

Air it out To discuss an issue openly. "I believe we need to air out the issues between our departments."

Anointed An employee that can't seem to do anything wrong in the eyes of management. Often highly recruited individual or a family member of owners. "Another year of sales figures like that and you'll be running with the annointed."

At this juncture Now. At this point in time. "We're not ready to commit to employee stock options at this juncture."

Bait and switch To advertise low priced items that aren't actually available, or from which a customer can be "upsold" a more expensive product. "It was a bait-and-switch. They said they'd just sold the last of that model an hour ago, but as long as I was here I should look around at other models."

Ballpark To make a very rough estimate. From baseball, meaning "falling within the ballpark." "I suppose I would ballpark the value at about 1 million dollars."

Band-aid To apply a trivial solution to a problem that will allow activities to proceed for a short time. "Using temps to keep up with the orders is really just a band aid."

Bandwidth The physical and mental limit of your working ability. "We need to develop more marketing bandwidth in this company if we're making more products."

Bang for the buck The return on invested money. "2% a year increase was not quite the bang for the buck we were looking for."

BankrollTo finance an undertaking. "He's going broke bankrolling losers."

Batting average From baseball. Indicates the percentage of time that someone or something is successful. "That legal firm has a great batting average with liability cases."

Betamaxed When a product has been overtaken by an inferior, but well marketed alternative. Refers to the competition between two formats of videotape for the home in the 1980-1990. "Our product works better and lasts a lot longer, but we could get Betamaxed by these inexpensive imports."

Bottom line it To summarize, as in "what's the bottom line?" "Could we skip the tax stuff and just bottom line it for me?"

Brain dump To extract the knowledge of an expert employee for the benefit of others. "No one else knows all the materials vendors over the last 15 years, so they're going to brain dump old Lothar before his retirement."

Bricks and mortar A business with a physical location and building, as opposed to companies operating over Internet sites and postal addresses. "No bricks and mortar in the valuation of that company."

Bullish To be highly in favor of. "The boss is feeling bullish about this new vendor incentive plan."

Buy-in To agree with a particular position. "He's doing a tap dance in the executive conference room to get management's buy-in on his new product idea."

Buzz Excited discussion between individuals, and in marketing, in the media. "The buzz is that this product is going to change housework completely."

Call on the carpet To discipline. "The boss is going to call Elroy on the carpet about his expense account."

Cannibalize To launch a new product which takes market share away from a company's other products. "Our new skateboard is going to cannibalize the existing market for our roller blades."

Circular file Garbage can."Most of our direct mail advertising goes straight into the circular file."

Come to Jesus meeting A term of American (specifically southern) evangelical origin that refers to a serious meeting with an individual or team. These meetings often involve ultimatums for performance improvement. "The poor sales last month mean we'll have another come-to-Jesus meeting this week."

ContrarianAn investor who makes decisions in opposition to mainstream ideas. "He's a contrarian. He thinks that 40 million Frenchmen are always wrong."

Cook the books A fraudulent attempt to falsify company records. As in using food scraps within a slow cooking soup."I'd say they were up late cooking the books before tax time."

Core competencies A company's most successful skills and activities, especially in technical areas. "Chemical engineering is one of our core competencies."

Critical mass An atomic science analogy for the point when an issue can no longer be avoided and must be addressed immediately. "This matter of aging accounts payable is about to reach critical mass if the vendors won't deliver at all."

CYA Cover Your Ass. To exercise caution to avoid blame "Just CYA and avoid putting any information in e-mails right now."

Dead wood An employee that no longer contributes anything meaningful to an organization. "Everyone who doesn't design on a computer is essentially dead wood around here."

Deep pockets Rich investors. "We're going to have to find some deep pockets to get this a new cell phone to market."

Deliver the goods To fulfillany kind of agreement as promised. "Those programmers always deliver the goods as advertised."

DinosaurA long-term company employee whose extensive experience is only surpassed by his resistance to change. "Old Lothar still refuses to get a cell phone or to put his accounts on the computer."

Dirty laundry Questionable business practices or materials that an organization would prefer to remain undisclosed. "I don't think the annual stockholders meeting is the place to bring out our dirty laundry."

DogA badly performing product or company. "iT looked like a good investment, but it turned out to be a dog."

Dog and pony show A presentation made necessarily rapid and simplistic for a non-expert audience. "We'll need a round of dog and pony shows to get investors."

Down and dirty To perform a task quickly without a high emphasis on quality."Let's just have a down and dirty prototype to look at Thursday."

Drill down To look into thoroughly. "We'll need to drill down on those numbers before we put any more money into this project."

Due Diligence The thoroughness required to ensure success in business decision. "The lawyers have certainly done due diligence on the leasing records."

Evangelize To promote a product with the enthusiasm of a true believer.

"We need to evangelize the new cell phone's GPS capabilities."

Face time time spent at the office meant to project the image that you're a hardworking employee. "He's just writing e-mails to girlfriends this afternoon, but it counts as face time."

Featherbedding Keeping jobs that aren't needed in order to please the union. "Using two carpenters to repair one simple door is just featherbedding."

Feeding frenzy Intense buying by consumers, or other activity where people are grabbing up some item. "Back in 1999 there was a feeding frenzy by investors for dot-com companies."

Free seminar In most cases, a sales presentation for the general public. "If you're lucky, they'll let you in to the free seminar."

Full-court press A phrase from basketball used to describe all-out effort. "We'd better put advertising into a full-court press just before Christmas."

Gatekeeper A person within an organization that controls the flow of information and resources. "The purchasing department is the real gatekeeper on the budget."

Glad-handing To shake hands with all present, as in parties and trade shows. "We work here in the booth while he's out glad-handing."

Glass ceiling The invisible barrier to career progression that is sometimes experienced by minorities and women. "There are still mostly old white guys in the boardroom because of the glass ceiling in this company."

Greater fool theory The idea that there is always someone willing to pay a higher price. "$300 for designer jeans just keeps proving the greater fool theory."

Hand-holding Helping someone perform a task that, because of inexperience or incompetence, they cannot complete on their own. "The biggest problem with running your own business is all the hand-holding."

Hardball Aggressive business tactics. From baseball (where women and children play softball). "This competitor is definitely playing hardball."

Head-count freeze A lack of available jobs at a given company, usually done to rein in labor costs. "Don't even think of applying here during this head count freeze."

Heads up A notification or early warning between friends for associates. "I justed wanted to give you a heads-up. He's going to ask for interim project status at this meeting."

Hired guns From Western movies. Specialized professionals hired by an organization. "They're going to bring in some hired guns to handle the accounting for this merger."

Human capital Referring to employees as living assets."The Human Resources department takes care of our human capital, our people assets.

Jawbone To talk someone into doing something. "The boss is trying to jawbone Herman into staying here and not taking the new job."

JuiceConnections,influence "As they say, the juice gets the goose."

Kicker Something added to a deal to make it more attractive."They can always make quality of life the kicker when they are recruiting to San Francisco."

KudosCongratulations. From a greek word meaning "fame and renown. "He got kudos from the whole department on his promotion."

Leave-behind Information presented on a sheet of paper for meetings and trade shows. "Save the detailed product information for the leave-behind."

Low-ball A very low quote. "They always start their negotiations with some ridiculous low-ball number."

Low-hanging fruitMarkets in which customers can be easily found. "First, we'll introduce these solar-powered foot warmers in Siberia and try to get the low-hanging fruit."

Meat and potatoes Basic or traditional. "Meat and potatoes approaches just don't work with the younger generation."

MeritocracyAn organization in which the success of individuals is claimed to be based on their aptitude, or merit. "It's pretty much a meritocracy around here, except for the boss's son."

Mickey Mouse A trivial solution. "Showing baby pictures in life insurance advertisements is Mickey Mouse, but it works."

Mom and Pop A small family-owned enterprise."They're finally putting in a supermarket in place of that mom-and-pop grocery on the corner."

Old boys club A tight network of longstanding business relationships. "The amount of our raises are decided on by managers in the old boy's club."

On the cheap To do something at little or no cost."We're going have to do holiday decorations on the cheap this year."

One-man show A business with a single proprietor. "That Internet company is pretty much a one-man-show."

One-two punch A boxing term meaning two actions taken immediately after each other."Bringing in a lot of stock and dropping the price to our cost was sort of a one-two punch that brought in a lot of holiday shoppers."

Out of the box Describes the abilities of a product immediately after purchase without any upgrades or integration. "This software will save us money right out of the box."

Ownership An individual's realization that he is responsible for the success of a given endeavor. "Since he had the basic idea, he really feels ownership in the project."

Pacesetter A product or company that sets market standards. "Their liver-and-gravy has always been the pace-setter in dog food."

Penetration pricing The practice of initially setting a low price to gain a market share. "Pentration pricing is fine to get them in the story, but when do we make a profit?"

PiggybackTo add to a previously stated idea, or incorporate with another activity. "Since we've already got a booth at the summer software trade show, we'll just piggyback in our lawn care products."

Razor/Razor Blades Creating a dispenser or a player which is sold near cost so that customers will buy many highly marked-up products which have great variety, or are disposable. "Some of the computer game consoles are sold inexpensively, on the razor/razor blade business model."

Repurpose To redefine how an item is used, often as an alternative to discarding. "We would have had to discard 1 million gallons of this unpopular perfume, but we repurposed it as toilet bowl freshener."

Retread To implement a failed idea for the second time, as in putting new tred on tires. "These Retro desklamps are more popular as a retread than they were the first time around."

Sacred cow A program or product that may be unprofitable, but cannot be questioned. "Since they made their first money producing pencils, we keep that sacred cow going although our office machines make a lot more profit now."

Sandbag 1) An unethical attack. 2) A tactic used by salespeople in which closing is purposely delayed into another time period (such as the next month), to improve their overall commission. "They sandbagged the CFO's presentation to the board by sandbagging their monthly sales reports."

Shotgun approach A wide, untargeted strategy."Sending salespeople down the street to every shop door is definitely a shotgun approach."

SMESubject Matter Expert. The people who know most about a given topic within the company, or profession. "We'd better get an SME on that new purchasing software to hold our hands at the meeting."

Stick to your knitting To focus on a company's main areas of business."Representing that estimating software looks attractive, but we've got to stick to our knitting in this construction business, and just build buildings."

Trending over To increase past a projected or budgeted value, usually in reference to spent money. "We're trending over budget here because Winkel and Hodge entertained our foreign visitors a bit lavishly."

Vanilla Simple, conservative. "That vanilla product packaging isn't going to catch anyone's attention."

Where the rubber meets the road The moment when a person or a product must demonstrate previously advertised performance. "The grocery store shelves will be where the rubber meets the road."

Wiggle room The amount of flexibility to change a profit margin in sales, or any position in other negotiations. "We've got a little wiggle room if they won't budge off the first price we gave."

Win-win situation A mutually beneficial arrangement for two parties. "We might actually have a win-win situation if Human Resources can use the room that Purchasing had, and Purchasing gets the Human Resource shelf space."