Illustration of a cluster of colorful speech bubbles about aspects of business operations, including money, questions, stock price — Illustration by iStock; *Security Management*

Corporate Vernacular, Translated

By Eric Kready, CPP, Carlos Francisco, CPP, and Eric Vento, CPP

1 September 2024

Focus on Career Transitions from Public to Private Sectors

Just as the military and law enforcement professions have specific jargon, the corporate world has a language of its own, too.

When you transition from the public to the private sector, you will often need to leave the jargon from your past life behind—it is often unrelatable if not indecipherable to civilians. But you’ll find familiar notes in corporate security jargon and terms, because they are usually based on a location, program, or team, similar to military terms.

The faster you get familiar with these phrases and terms, the better you will assimilate into corporate culture and add value in strategic meetings.

The Basic Jargon

Many of these terms use familiar words in unfamiliar ways. Some of them are more buzzwords than actionable, but they will help you interpret how colleagues are approaching different problems and relationships.

Ecosystem: A complex network or interconnected system, often used to describe business models that involve various interdependent entities.
Stakeholder: An individual or group with an interest in the success of an organization, including employees, customers, investors, and partners.
Core competencies: The unique skills, strengths, or capabilities that give an organization a competitive advantage.
Scale: To grow or expand a business or operation in a capable and efficient manner.
Pivot: To make a significant change in strategy, direction, or products/services offered by a company.
Disrupt: To radically change an industry or business strategy by introducing a groundbreaking product or service.
Alignment: Ensuring that resources, strategies, and goals are all in agreement and moving in the same direction.
Holistic approach: Considering the whole picture or system rather than just focusing on its parts.
Synergy: The idea that combined efforts or cooperation of two or more organizations will produce a greater effect than the sum of their separate effects.
Best practices: Methods or techniques that have been generally accepted as superior to others because they produce results that are superior to those achieved by other means.
Low-hanging fruit: Tasks or goals that are easily achievable and do not require a lot of effort.
Think outside the box: To think creatively, beyond the usual ways of considering a problem.
Leverage: To use a resource or advantage to achieve a desired outcome.
Bandwidth: The capacity or energy to deal with a situation, often used in reference to time availability.
Agile: A methodology emphasizing flexibility, collaboration, and customer feedback in the development of products or services.
Value-add: An element or feature added to a product or service that increases its value to consumers.
Onboard: The process of integrating a new employee into an organization or familiarizing a new customer or client with one's products or services.
Metrics: Measurements or standards used to evaluate and manage the performance of an organization or its activities. Can also be referred to as KPIs, or key performance indicators.
Benchmarking: The process of comparing an organization’s performance, processes, or practices against industry standards or best practices.
SWOT analysis: A strategic planning tool to help assess an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Communication

Regular communication is key in corporations, but some phrases can have subtext, signaling the listener that additional research or private discussions are needed.

Touch base: To make contact or check in with someone to discuss a matter. Can also be used as a noun for a check-in meeting.
Circle back: To revisit or follow up on a topic or issue at a later time.
Take this offline: To discuss elsewhere, such as in a different email, meeting, or discussion.
Deep dive: An in-depth exploration or analysis of a topic or issue.

Finances

You might find yourself in a position where you need to be acutely aware of the organization’s finances and operations outside of security. This is often unexplored territory for people newly transitioned out of public service, so some quick studying would behoove you.

ROI (Return on Investment): A measure used to evaluate the efficiency or profitability of an investment relative to its cost.
CapEx (Capital Expenditure): Funds used by a company to acquire, upgrade, and maintain physical assets such as property, industrial buildings, or equipment.
OpEx (Operating Expenses): The ongoing costs for running a product, business, or system; typically, the day-to-day expenses.
Cash flow: The total amount of money being transferred into and out of a business, especially affecting liquidity.
Economies of scale: The cost advantage that arises with increased output of a product, leading to a reduction in per-unit cost.
Bottom line: The final total of an account, balance sheet, or financial result, referring to a company's net income or profit.
Top line: Refers to a company's gross sales or revenue, before any deductions or expenses are subtracted.
Burn rate: The rate at which a company is spending its capital to finance overhead before generating positive cash flow from operations.
Liquidity: The availability of liquid assets to a company and the ability to convert assets into cash quickly.
Debt financing: Raising capital through the sale of bonds, bills, or notes to individuals or institutions.
Equity financing: The method of raising capital by selling company stock to investors.
Fiscal year: A 12-month period that companies and governments use for financial reporting and budgeting, which does not necessarily align with the calendar year.
Gross margin: The difference between revenue and cost of goods sold divided by revenue, expressed as a percentage.
Net margin: The percentage of revenue remaining after all operating expenses, interest, taxes, and preferred stock dividends have been deducted from a company's total revenue.
Due diligence: An investigation or audit of a potential investment or product to confirm all facts, such as reviewing financial records, plus anything else deemed material.
Market capitalization: The total dollar market value of a company's outstanding shares of stock.
Diversification: The strategy of investing in a variety of securities in order to lower the risk involved with putting money into few investments.
Fixed costs: Business expenses that remain constant regardless of the level of production or sales.
Variable costs: Costs that vary directly with the level of production or sales.
Break-even point: The production level at which total revenues equal total expenses.