MBA Jargon Demystified

a TOP 10 countdown

10

SWOT analysis

Example:

SW

OT

an

aly

sis

Strengths

• Lower overhead costs• No membership

required

Weaknesses

• Limited selection• High wait times

Opportunities

• Offer streaming service• Multiple screens for

multiple customers

Threats

• Physical disc moving to digital

• Piracy

9

CRM / ERP

CR

M /

ER

P

CRM = Customer Relationship Management Software

CR

M /

ER

P CRM Major Players….

CR

M /

ER

PERP = Enterprise Resource Planning

System that integrates all departments like finance, sales, marketing, CRM and operations

Key ERP Players…

8

Globalization

Glo

baliz

ati

on

Finally understanding international trade is not a zero sum game. Trading partners are all left better off utilizing comparative advantages

Glo

baliz

ati

on

Explains why cotton grown in Texas is shipped to textile factories in Shanghai before returning to the U.S. for consumption

7

Organizational CULTURE

Org

. C

ULT

UR

EWhat does your organization value?

Does it have a flat or tall org chart?Are rewards group or individually awarded?

Org

. C

ULT

UR

E

Disney’s imagineering portmanteau implies a culture of innovation that is also employee-centric

6

Buy in

Bu

y in

Ultimately a project will fail if key stakeholders are not committed

Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone did not get buy in from the heads of CBS and Paramount causing a split shortly after the merger

5

BEST Practices

BES

T P

ract

ices

Crowdsourcing other firms’ processes and adopting what they do best

Example:

Domino’s tracks ambulance routes to determine quickest lanes to delivery their pies

4

Socialnomics

Soci

aln

om

ics Belief that ALL marketing and sales

will eventually (in near future) be driven my SOCIAL MEDIA instead of traditional media

One in every seven minutes spent online is spent on Facebook

Trust TV ads… 47%Trust friends’ word of

mouth…92%

3

CORE competencies

CO

RE c

om

pete

nci

es

The few things that a company is better at doing than any other company

Example:

Netflix exploited its superiority in delivering discs to beat Blockbuster

2

Leverage

Levera

ge

Once a proper finance term, leverage is now used to describe how a company can use favorable position in one thing to its advantage in another

1

Synergy

Syn

erg

yCombination of multiple systems for an end greater than the sum of its parts

Example:

CBS partners with BIG Reliance in emerging Indian market. In exchange for its content and global brand, CBS gets Reliance cultural guidance and political connections