A - Z GLOSSARY

Accounting:- A service activity designed to accumulate, measure and communicate financial information about economic
entities for decision making purposes.

Benchmarking:- A continuous process of measurement of products, services and  work processes against those recognised
as leaders.

Budget:- A detailed plan of income and expenses expected over a certain period of  time.

Business Plan- A written document that describes a business, its objectives, strategies, market and financial forecast.

Business Process Re Engineering:- The activity by which as enterprise re-examines  its goals and how it achieves
them, followed by a disciplined approach of business  process redesign.

Change Management:- The leadership and direction of the process of Organisational  Transformation especially with regard
to human aspects and overcoming resistance to  change.

Competition:- Competition or Rivalrly are similar businesses providing products or services to your potential customers.

Culture:- The culture of an organisation is an amalgamation of the values and beliefs  of the people in an organisation. The
culture if positive can motivate staff, but it can  demotivate if it does not satisfy the needs of the staff.

Customer:- The persons or group that are the direct beneficiaries of a project or service, the people for whom the project is being undertaken.

Customer Relationship Management:- The systematic collection and utilisation by a business of data re: the identity, spending patterns and interests of each of its  customers, in order to foster customer loyalty through individualised correspondance and tailored benefits.

Customer Satisfaction:- The company's ability to fulfill the business, emotional and  pyschological needs of its customers.

E-Commerce - The process of buying or selling goods and services over the internet.

EBITDA:- Reports a company’s profits before interest on debt and taxes owed or paid  to the government are subtracted. It’s
used to compare the profitability of a company  with other companies of the same size in the same industry who may have
different levels of debt or different tax situations. It looks at the Cash operating profits which make no allowance for capital expenditures  by ignoring depreciation. The measure is often used by venture capital firms in MBOs  to determine the price payable by reference to the amount of borrowing that can be serviced.

Employee:- A person who performs work for an employer under a verbal or written  understanding where the employer
gives direction as to what tasks are done.

Empowerment:- The devolution of power and deciision making authority to those  lower in the organisation for the purposes
of improving operations, reducing costs,  improving product quality and customer service.

Feasibility Study:- A combination of a Market Study and an Economic Analysis that  provides an investor with the knowledge
to determine whether a project wil be  economically viable and produce expected returns.

Innovation:- Introduction of a new idea into the marketplace in the form of a new  product or service or an improvement in
an organisation or process

Key Performance Indicators:- A significant measure used on its own or in  combination with other key performance indicators
to monitor how well a business is  achieving its quantifiable objectives.

Marketing:- A group of Inter Related activities designed to identify consumer needs and to develop, distribute, promote and price goods and services to satisfy these needs at a profit.

Market Position:- Where you are in a market vis a vis the other suppliers and competition.

Market Strategy:- Profit Impact of Market Strategy found that the following were the most important strategic variables - Market Share, Prodcut Quality, Investment Intensity and Service Quality.

Organisational Behaviour:- Study of indiviual emotions and behaviour, team dynamics and the systems and structures of organisations. Organisational behaviour seeks to provide an understanding of the factors necessary for managers to create an organisation that is more effective or successful than its competitors.

Outsourcing:- The concept of taking internal company functions and paying an outside  firm to handle them. Outsourcing is done
to save money, improve quality or free  company resources for other activities.

Product Life Cycle:- A marketing theory in which products or brands follow a  sequence of stages including introduction,
growth, maturity and sales decline.

Profit:- Revenue Minus Costs The amount one makes in a transaction. The surplus of  revenue generated over expenses incurred for a particular accounting period. Profits  increase a companys retained earnings and generally an owners equity value.

Standards Manuals:- A set of written procedures defining clearly to any reader how  to perform a given task or set of tasks.
Used for training, benchmarking or achieving  quality indicators.

Supply Chain Management:- The management of the entire value added chain from  supplier to manufacturer through to
retailer and final customer. Supply Chain  Management has 3 primary goals:-
      Reduce Inventory
      Increase transaction speed by exchanging data in real time
      Increase sales by meeting customer requirements more efficiently

Total Quality Management:- A management philosophy committed to a focuson continuous improvements of products and services.

Value Chain:- A model for a generic firm depicted as a set of inter-related value  creating activities. The goal of these activities
is to create value that exceeds the cost  of providing the product/service that generates a profit margin.