I, The Absolute

What is an MBA program if we do not learn jargon at the end of it? I list a few of them. Some of them are popular; some are little known.

• Air Time: a precious opportunity — speaking or making comments in class.
• Analysis Paralysis: not being able to make a decision because you’ve gotten lost in the thicket of your own analysis.
• Back of the Envelope: a quick analysis of numbers, as if scribbled on the back of an envelope.
• Burn Rate: amount of cash a money losing company consumes during a period of time.
• Buzz words: jargon, usually used to make an impression upon someone
• C-level: Those modest, hardworking souls at the top of your org chart: CEO, COO, CFO, CIO, CPO, CTO, Chief Dog Walker, etc.
• Cold Call: unexpected, often dreaded request by the professor to open a case discussion.
• Corner Office: office location that all MBAs aspire to and the exclusive province of partners, managing directors, and senior executives.
• Cycle Time: how fast you can turn something around.
• Four Ps: elements of a marketing strategy: Price, Promotion, Place, Product.
• Experience curve: There was also the experience curve, which meant that the more a firm knows about a market, the more it can lower its price and increase its market share.
• Poets: students with little quantitative skills or experience (numerically challenged).
• Power Naps: quick, intense in-class recharge for the continually sleep deprived.
• Quant Jock: a numerical athlete who is happiest crunching numbers.
• Roomie: a room mate
• Rule of Three: you should not talk more than three times in any given class, but you should participate at least once over the course of three classes.
• Run the Numbers: analyze quantitatively.
• Sharks: students with high quantitative skills or experience
• The Five Forces: Michael Porter’s model for analyzing the strategic attractiveness of an industry.
• Porter-Kotler – the most famous authors on the campus. For any Consulting, marketing interview, your preparation is not complete without reading the books of these Profs.

(H)asta manana

Post Scriptum:

• Come next Monday, we have out Term II exams. So far, I can term my preparation as quite inadequate. Three of the four subjects, Marketing Decision Making, Global Economics and Strategy, are not quant based and I am hoping to clear the based on my experience and on the classes I attended. Decision Models and Optimization is completely quant oriented and I, as are many of my friends, am struggling to comprehend.

• (H)asta manana, in Spanish, means see u tomorrow. H is always silent in Spanish.