Solvay Business English Oral Exam - Part One: The 84 Concepts and Core Vocabulary

A comprehensive flashcard pack covering the 84 business concepts, vocabulary, and acronyms from the INGE3 Business English Oral Exam revision guide. Includes core definitions and justifying logic.

Gantt chart

A project-management bar chart that lays tasks out against a timeline, showing start and end dates, durations, dependencies and milestones.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

A company's self-regulation to behave ethically and contribute to social, environmental and community goals beyond pure profit-making.

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)

A formal but usually non-binding agreement setting out the intentions and broad terms between parties before a full contract is signed.

Leveraged buyout (LBO)

Acquiring a company mainly with borrowed money (debt), using the target's own assets and cash flow as collateral.

Zone of Possible Agreement (ZOPA)

The range in a negotiation in which both sides' acceptable terms overlap, so a deal is possible.

Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG)

Criteria used to judge how sustainable and ethical a company is, increasingly used to screen investments.

CEO activism

When chief executives publicly take positions on political, social or environmental issues, which can differentiate a brand but carries reputational risk.

Ethical walls (Chinese walls)

Internal information barriers that stop confidential or price-sensitive data flowing between departments with conflicting interests.

Price gouging

Raising the price of essential goods to unfair levels, especially during shortages or when using market power.

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

A contract obliging parties to keep shared information confidential, protecting intellectual property and trade secrets.

Short-selling / to go short

Borrowing shares and selling them in the hope of buying them back cheaper, profiting if the price falls.

Sovereign wealth fund (SWF)

A state-owned investment fund, often built from commodity or trade surpluses, such as Norway's oil fund.

‘Poison pill’ strategy (M&A)

A takeover defence that makes a hostile bid prohibitively expensive, typically by issuing cheap new shares to dilute the bidder.

Irrational exuberance

Unjustified market optimism that pushes asset prices far above fundamentals, a term coined by Alan Greenspan.

The power law (VC)

The principle in venture capital where a tiny number of investments generate almost all the returns.

Business clusters

Geographic concentrations of related firms, suppliers, and talent, like Silicon Valley, that boost innovation through knowledge spillovers.

Mission-oriented innovation policies (MOIP)

Government setting bold societal ‘missions’ and steering R&D and investment to solve them, as argued by Mazzucato.

Greenshoe option (IPOs)

An over-allotment option letting underwriters sell up to $15\%$ extra shares if demand is strong to help stabilise the price.

Blitzscaling

Prioritising breakneck growth and market capture over efficiency to become the leader first, according to Reid Hoffman.

The J-curve (VC/PE)

The pattern where a fund's returns are negative early on due to fees and losses before turning strongly positive.

‘Killer acquisitions’ (M&A)

Incumbents buying young rivals to neutralise or absorb a future threat before it can grow.

Total addressable market (TAM)

The total revenue opportunity available if a product captured $100\%$ of its market.

Social currency (marketing)

The idea that people share things that make them look good, as defined in Jonah Berger's STEPPS framework.

Veblen goods

Luxury goods whose demand rises as the price rises because the high price signals status.

The IKEA effect

A cognitive bias where consumers value a product more when they have invested effort in part-building it themselves.

Chapter 11 (bankruptcy)

A US legal process to restructure a firm's debts and keep it operating as a going concern.

Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)

Your best fallback option if a negotiation fails, providing your ‘walk-away’ alternative.

Index inclusion effect

When a stock's price is pushed up because it is added to a major index, forcing passive and index funds to buy it.

Employee ranking (‘rank and yank’)

Forced ranking of staff against each other, often using a $20-70-10$ grid, with the bottom tier managed out.

Global Systemically Important Banks (G-SIB)

Banks so large and interconnected that their failure would threaten the global financial system, often described as ‘too big to fail’.

Convergence trades

Betting that two related prices that have temporarily diverged will move back together, a strategy used by LTCM.

Alpha

The return an investment earns above its benchmark, which is attributed to the skill of the manager.

The 90% low-growth threshold

The claim by Reinhart & Rogoff that economic growth slows sharply once public debt passes about $90\%$ of GDP.

Dutch disease

When a resource boom pushes up a country's currency and wages, making its other export industries uncompetitive.

Decoupling (economics)

The process of economies or supply chains separating from one another to cut dependence, specifically regarding the US and China.

Black swan events

Rare, high-impact events that are very hard to predict and are only rationalised in hindsight, according to Taleb.

A soft landing (economics)

Slowing an over-heating economy enough to cool inflation without tipping it into recession.

Quantitative easing (QE)

A monetary policy where central banks buy assets to inject money into the economy.