Benchmarking A systematic and structured approach to comparing your company’s performance and processes to other companies and best practices.

Business model Description of the rationale of how an organisation creates and captures value and delivers it to its customers, its employees and itself in both economic, social, cultural and other contexts.

Business strategy Stating the goals and targets for the organisation or parts of the organisation and the way the organisation intends to achieve those. Often related to answering the question ‘How shall we compete in the business we are in?’.

Change management An approach to transitioning an organisation or parts of the organisation, including all the individuals working in it, to a desired future state. Often it is often strongly associated with changes in culture, attitude or behaviour.

(Corporate) governance The structure and processes by which an organisation is controlled and directed, including the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in this structure and including the rules and procedures for taking decisions about the organisation’s future. Good corporate governance adheres to universally accepted principles of how to let the corporate governance function with the best intentions for the organisation.

Corporate strategy Stating the overall aim and direction (objectives) for the organisation as a whole. Often related to answering the question ‘What business should we be in?’.

Cost accounting (direct and indirect costs) A field in management that relates to the provision of detailed information on all costs and the cost efficiency of the organisation in order to control current activities of the organisation and to assess and evaluate optimisation plans and alternative activities for the future.

Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) A method for valuing and appraising investments, based on the total cash flow an investment will generate in the future. Future cash flows are discounted to their present day values taking the time value of money into consideration.

Economic value added (EVA) A measure of higher-than-expected return on capital employed: the profit earned minus the cost of financing the activities that led to that profit.

Finance A field in management that relates to the allocation of assets and liabilities, and the effective and efficient management of them in such a manner as to accommodate the organisation in reaching its objectives.

Human resource management (HR; HRM) A field in management that relates to the maximisation of employee performance in order to enable the organisation to reach its objectives. It includes facilitating the organisation in managing the workforce, with activities such as recruitment, performance appraisal and rewarding, training and development.

Innovation The development and bringing to the market of something new, original and important in its field that (potentially) will bring the market (or society) to the next level.

Kaizen Means ‘good change’ in Japanese. It is a method for continually improving all functions in the organisation and involves all employees.

Leadership The ability to guide or lead a group of people or an organisation to pursue a common objective.

Lean (management) A production philosophy that considers the expenditure of resources in any aspect other than the direct creation of value for the customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination.

Management model A tool, approach or technique to support management in making decisions, setting objectives, aligning activities to objectives, and coordinating efforts and people within the organisation. Often based on theory and accompanied with a graphical representation of some sort, like a matrix, schedule or diagram.

Marketing A field in management that relates to all communication with potential and current customers, in terms of both their wishes and demands and the organisation’s offering of products and services. It includes looking for and choosing target markets, and communicating the attractiveness and value of the organisation’s offerings to the markets the organisation had chosen and is active in.

Net present value (NPV) The resulting value when all future in-going and outgoing cash flows are discounted to their present day values including any (upfront) investment. See also DCF.

Operations A field in management that relates to all activities involved in designing, optimising and controlling the process of production. It concerns both efficiency in the use of resources when converting input into outputs, and effectiveness to meet customer requirements and organisational objectives.

Organisational culture The collectively shared mental assumptions within an organisation – of (subgroups of the) people working in that organisation – that guide interpretation and action of all working in the organisation. These shared assumptions define appropriate behaviour for various situations and is taught to new organisational members as the right way of perceiving, thinking and feeling.

Product/market combinations (PMC) The breakdown of the organisation’s offering of products and services into both specific product (and services) groups and specific markets or customer groups. When this breakdown is plotted in a matrix, with the specific products (services) on one axis and the specific markets (customer groups) on the other axis, different combinations can be found: the so-called product/market combinations.

Sales A field in management that relates to all commercial activities of the organisation that are aimed at selling its products and services for the highest reward.

Six sigma A set of techniques, tools and statistical methods for improving the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects and by minimising variety in the process. Employees improving process with six sigma methods are often trained in its techniques and tools and can be recognised by their ‘coloured belts’ (black, brown, green, yellow, etc.).

Stakeholder A non-shareholding person or other organisation that has a stake in the success of the organisation, for instance employees, customers, suppliers, trade unions, governments and local communities.

Supply chain A chain of organisations, each with their own specific activities, that transforms natural resources into a product or service for consumers. Often a supply chain consists of multiple organisations in multiple countries in multiple industries. In sophisticated supply chains products can be re-entered at a certain point in the supply chain (recycling).

SWOT analysis or TOWS analysis A structured method to evaluate and assess the organisation’s abilities in terms of strengths (S) and weakness (W) and the possibilities the organisation has in its market in terms of opportunities (O) and threats (T).

Value chain The chain of key primary and supporting activities of the organisation to deliver its products and services.