Acronyms to Further Your Business Acumen

Everybody has to start somewhere.  Even the most accomplished business executives didn’t start out at the top, in a suit, with a corner office, making crucial decisions, and bringing home a corresponding big paycheck.

I am a huge advocate of internships.  For young people who are just starting out, there has to be an opportunity to get your feet wet out in the business world, rather than simply going through college and thinking that everything you learned out of the text books will have you sufficiently prepared for your career.

I have also always been very outspoken about networking.  This weekly blog has probably even been home to me saying more than once that you can never have too many contacts.

But what happens when you are young, you’re just starting out, maybe you’re doing an internship, and you do start getting out to some networking events?  You feel a little overwhelmed and nervous because you’re a rookie playing with the veterans.  And then it happens – you find yourself in a conversation where someone is throwing around terms that they don’t even think twice about.  The business language they speak is as common to them as English itself.  Unfortunately, you haven’t gotten to the course or the chapter yet where they teach you this vernacular, never mind its abbreviations.

Okay, so, they’re actually acronyms, but, they are shorter ways of saying phrases.  Don’t be embarrassed that you don’t know them yet, but don’t pull out your smartphone to look it up while someone is giving you their time.

Know that there is a much, much longer list than the few I’m going to reference, but, in my opinion, these are very common acronyms that you can count on hearing on a regular basis.  You know how you get a new vehicle and then it seems like you see so many of that make and model on the road?  This will be the same experience.  Listen how frequently you’ll hear these now that you will have read them here.

KPI – key performance indicators.  These are areas that are felt to be critical to a company’s success.
ROI – return on investment.  Is what you’re getting back worth what you put into it?
USP – unique selling proposition.  What is it that truly makes you (your product or service) stand out from your competition?  Why are you different?
NDA – non-disclosure agreement.  You might as well call this a confidentiality agreement
SWOT – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.  Pretty self-explanatory.  A company will employ this model as a measuring stick.

I mentioned that there are certainly others.  But, be 100% sure of what they mean before you start throwing them around to try to impress someone.  You’ll stand out for all the wrong reasons if you’re making references to something in the wrong context.