Key Corporate and Market Definitions

Financial and Market Fundamentals

• Balance sheet: A statement that shows the financial position of a company on a specified date.
• Profit margins: The percentage of profits remaining after all costs, interest, and taxes have been subtracted.
• Market trend: An observed tendency of financial markets to move in a particular direction over time.
• Bull market: An upward movement of the market.
• Bear market: A downward movement of the market.
• Consumer confidence: The economic indicator reflecting that if the economy is successful, consumers will spend more money.
• Buoyant: Successful, and likely to remain successful.
• To benchmark: To provide a standard or to compare with others.

Operations and Supply Chain

• Distribution channel: The chain of intermediaries through which a good or service passes until it reaches the end consumer.
• Production methods: Processes used to manufacture a product.
• Supply chain: Different companies working together to produce, handle, and/or distribute a specific product.
• Supply chain disruption: An unplanned event that adversely affects a firm’s normal operations, such as an unscheduled plant shutdown, transportation interruption, or supplier and logistics failures.
• Outsourcing: A practice used by companies to reduce costs by giving part of the work to outside suppliers rather than doing everything internally.

Management and Strategy

• Cost cutting: Initiatives to reduce expenses through methods such as lowering salary costs.
• Sales projections: Profits a company expects to earn from selling their products.
• Product development: The process of developing a new product or service for the market.
• Quality control: A procedure created to ensure that a manufactured product follows quality criteria.
• Advertising campaign: A series of advertisements designed to promote a particular product or brand.
• Customer relations: The development of a friendly and continuous relationship between a company and its customers.
• To sidetrack: To delay the progress of something by causing people to waste time on unimportant matters.

Human Resources and IT

• Staff appraisals: Evaluation of an employee’s work and behavior.
• Recruitment procedures: The process of finding and hiring the best-qualified candidate for a job.
• Salary reviews: The annual review of an employee's salary to determine if an increase is warranted.
• Training budgets: The allocation of capital for employee development over the course of a year.
• Price setting: The process of determining a final price for a product.
• IT support: Technical help provided by computing experts.