Business Terms and Words – Part 4 - Ajit Patel UK, Sanda Wellbeing and Sanda Wellness Group, Goldshi
The Daily Official List - The daily record setting out the prices of shares that are traded on a stock exchange.
Damage Limitation - The process of trying to limit or curtail the amount of damage or loss caused by a particular situation or event.
Dark Net - A term for online private websites and networks concealed from and inaccessible to unauthorised users in which materials are shared, normally illegally and anonymously.
Dark Store - A retail store adapted or designed for the main or whole purpose of fulfilling online orders. Customers generally do not visit 'dark stores', except where policy/processes allow the collection of pre-ordered goods. The 'dark store' feature of retailing began to emerge seriously in the early 2000s, in which an existing retail store or a purpose-built facility - notably in the supermarkets sector - would be adapted/designed chiefly or entirely for distributing orders placed online, i.e., website sales. Dark stores typically contain similar warehousing/shelving/aisles arrangements to conventional retail stores, but store staff physically pick the products, rather than customers. Orders are then delivered to customers, or (subject to the policy if the retailer) may be collected. It is easy to foresee a time when generally the product picking and packaging for delivery/collection is automated. The word 'dark' in this context alludes to the notion of a store not requiring the bright environment and highly visible presence and that we normally associate with traditional retailing. The word also alludes to the fact that much of the activity in dark stores can happen at night. This terminology and retailing strategy reflects a substantial fundamental shift in society, far beyond the logistics of shopping. Dark stores signify a dramatic reorganization of the 'developed world', by which the nature of consumer and commercial consumption, and the uses of buildings and entire commercial/retail development sites, are becoming very different, with many big implications for societies, infrastructures, and how people live within and relate to them. Incidentally the word fulfillment may instead be spelled fulfilment, although the former is more common. (I'm keen to clarify the precise origin of the 'dark store' term. If you know please contact me.)
Daughter Company - A company that is controlled partly or completely by a holding or parent company.
Dawn Raid - A sudden planned purchase of a large number of a company's shares at the beginning of a days trading on the stock exchange.
Day Player - In the entertainment industry, actors, etc., who are hired by the day.
Deadbeat - A person or company who tries to avoid paying their debts.
Dead Cat Bounce - A derogatory term used on the stock exchange to describe a huge decline in the value of a stock, usually a share, which is immediately followed by a temporary rise in price before continuing to fall. From: "Even a dead cat will bounce if it falls from a great height".
Dear Money - Also known as Tight Money. When money is difficult to borrow, and if a loan is secured then it would be paid back at a very high rate of interest.
Debenture - Unsecured certified loan over a long period of time with a fixed rate, based on the trust that payment will be made in the future.
Debriefing - A meeting or interview in which a person or group of people report about a task or mission just completed or attempted.
Debt - Money owed to another person or organisation, such as a loan, mortgage, etc., which is required to be paid back, usually with interest.
Debt-Equity Swap - An arrangement between a lender and a debtor, usually a company, in which the lender agrees to reduce the debt in exchange for newly issued shares from the borrower.
Debt Exposure - Money that a lender risks losing if the borrower fails to pay it back.
Decertification - In employment this refers specifically to action taken by workers to disassociate themselves from a trade union which previously represented them. Aside from this the general meaning refers to withdrawal of certification of one sort or another.
Decision ConsequenceAnalysis - A process for helping decision makers, usually in the pharmaceutical and petroleum exploration industries, decide where resources such as time, money, etc., should be invested.
Decision Tree - A diagram which starts with an initial decision, and possible strategies and actions are represented by branches which lead to the final outcome decided upon.
Deed Of Partnership - A legal document which sets out how a partnership is to be run, and also the rights of the partners. A Deed Of Partnership is not compulsory but it helps to avoid any misunderstandings or disputes in the future.
Deep Throat - In business, an anonymous source of top secret information. First used in this sense in the reporting of the US Watergate scandal.
Deep Web - Also known as the Invisible Web, said to contain about 500 times more information than the generally accessible world-wide web, the Deep Web comprises data held by secure organizations, for example military and government.
De Facto - Latin - Existing in reality or fact, with or without legal right.
Defence Document - A document that a company's shareholders receive which explains why an offer to buy the company should be rejected.
Deficit Financing - When a government borrows money because of a shortage of funds from taxes. This usually results in pushing up interest rates.
Deflation - Economic decline typified by falling costs of goods and services; falling levels of employment; limited money supply or credit; reduced imports; lower wage increases, often caused by lower personal spending or investment, and/or a reduction in government spending. Deflation is broadly the opposite of inflation.
Delegation - An assignment of responsibility or task, usually by a manager to a subordinate. See delegation. Separately a delegation refers to a deputation, being a group of people appointed or responsible for representing a nation or corporation or other organization to attend talsk or negotiations, etc.
Deleveraging - An attempt by a company to reduce its debts, for example by selling off assets, laying off staff, etc.
Demerit Goods - Products or services such as as alcohol, gambling, drugs, prostitution, etc., which are considered unhealthy or undesirable, and are often subject to extra taxes in order to reduce consumption and potentially to fund remedial actions in response to consumption. See Sin Tax.
Democracy - Majority rule, by which the biggest proportion of members of a group determine decisions for the whole group. Democracy typically refers to a country's political system, in which government is elected through majority vote.
Demographic Profile - Used in marketing to describe a particular segment of the population, for example social class, age, gender, income, etc.
Demographic Segmentation - The process of identifying and dividing consumers into groups according to their race, age, gender, religion, etc.
Demonetize - To officially decide that a particular coin or banknote can no longer be used as currency.
Deposition - A sworn statement of evidence by a witness taken outside of the court proceedings before a trial.
Depression - A prolonged and very deep economic recession, in a country or wider region. Definitions of an economic depression vary greatly, from two to ten years or more, characterized by extremely deep levels of negative indicators such as unemployment, credit and money supply, living standards, and reduced GDP, etc. Historians and economic commentators commonly disagree about the duration of depressions due to the confused methods of defining precisely what a depression is.
Deregulate - The reduction or removal of government regulations from an industry or business.
Derived Demand - Demand for a service or goods which is created by the demand for another service or goods, such as the demand for steel to make cars.
Desk Jockey - An informal term for someone who spends their working day sitting behind a desk, and who is concerned about administration.
Desktop Publishing - Producing printed documents, magazines, books, etc., using a small computer and printer.
Didactic - Describes works of literature or art which are intended to be be informative or instructional, especially morally, rather than entertaining. From the ancient Greek word didaskein, which means to teach.
Digerati - People who consider themselves to be experts of the Internet and computer industry.
Digital Wallet - Computer software used to store a persons bank account details, name, address, etc., to enable them to make automatic payments when they are making purchases on the Internet.
Direct Marketing - The marketing of products, services, etc., directly to individual potential customers by sending them catalogues, leaflets, brochures, etc., by mail (including e-mail), calling them on the telephone or calling door-to-door.
Director - A person appointed to oversee and run a company or organisation along with other directors, In the entertainment industry, the person who directs the making of a film, TV program, etc.
Directives - At an official level, directives are instructions, guidelines or orders issued by a governing or regulatory body. They may amount to law. In a less formal way a directive equates to an instruction issued by an executive or manager or organizational department.
Direct Overhead - A portion of the overheads, e.g. lighting, rent, etc., directly associated with the production of goods and services.
Dirty Money - Money made from illegal activities which needs 'laundering' so that it appears to be legitimate.
Disability Discrimination Act - An Act of Parliament passed in Britain in 1995 which promotes the civil rights of disabled people and protects them from discrimination in employment, education, renting property, access to transport, etc.
Disburse - To pay out money from a large fund, e.g. a treasury or public fund.
Discount Loan - A loan on which the finance charges and interest is paid before the borrower receives the money.
Discount Window - In the US, when banks can borrow money from the Federal Reserve at low interest rates.
Discretionary Income - The amount of income a person is left with after taxes and living essentials, such as food, housing, etc., have been deducted.
Discretionary Order - Permits a broker to buy or sell shares on behalf of an investor in order to get the best price.
Discriminating Duty - A variable tax levied on goods depending from which country they were imported.
Dispatch Note - Also called Dispatch Advice. A document giving details of goods which have been dispatched or are ready to be dispatched to a customer.
Distributable Profit - A company's profits which are available for distribution among shareholders at the end of an accounting period.
Distributer - An individual or company who buys products, usually from manufacturers, and resells them to retail outlets or direct to customers. A wholesaler.
Diversion/Product Diversion - In marketing and business 'diversion' refers to the unofficial distribution/availability of branded consumer products. In other words this is the supply of branded products through unautorized stockists or retailers or other suppliers, notably via the web. Diversion does not refer to pirated or counterfeit or 'fake' goods. Diversion refers to official goods being sold through unofficial channels. Also called a 'grey market'.
Diversification - The act or strategy of growing a business/brand by developing its range of products, services, investments, etc., into new market sectors, horizontally or vertically. The term diversification is not generally used in referring to the development of new greographical markets. The vastly diversified Virgin business and brand is a good example of diversification, from from its music mail-order origins in the 1970s, into recording, aviation, rail, holidays/hotels, health clubs, internet/broadband, communications/telephony, TV, radio, books/publishing, events/festivals, banking, insurance, charity, cola, bridal services, condoms, etc. Diversification may make use of an existing brandname (Virgin is a good example of this), or new brandnames, and may entail various business structures, including acquistion. Partnering and joint-ventures are common structural approaches to diversification (so as to work with people/businesses who have existing market presence/expertise). Much simpler examples of diversification are: a butcher's shop which starts a hog-roast service; a bakers shop which opens a cafe; a builder who starts a property development business. Diversification strategies, especially of large scale, typically involve considerable risk and investment because by implication the organization is seeking to become successful in a new unfamiliar field. Risk affects the existing business as well as the new one, in terms of finances, resources, time-management, and brand/reputation, particularly where branding is similar between existing and new activities, all of which are often overlooked. Failures are often characterized by under-funding, poor-planning, inadequate resourcing, and over-optimism/arrogance of leaders, believing that success or dominance in one sector will automatically enable easy success in a new sector; a dangerously faulty assumption.
Diversity - In the context of work/organizations, diversity is a business/employment term originating in the late 1900s, referring to the quality of a workforce (and potentially a group of users/customers or audience) as defined by its mixture of people according to ethnicity, race, religion, disability, gender, sexuality, age, etc. The use of the term diversity assumes that an equal non-discriminatory approach to employment produces positive effects, for staff, working environment, society, etc., and is an extremely healthy and ethical principle. As such the term 'diversity' has become a strongly symbolic principle, rather like other big progressive movements in organizational and societal/economic thinking such as 'green', 'sustainability', 'ethics', 'governance', etc.
Divest/Divestment - In business, divest/divestment refers to a corporation selling subsidiary interests, especially a subsidiary company. (The term derives originally from a more literal meaning of taking power of rights from someone or a body - from the original French desvestir, meaining literally removal of a person's vest or garment.)
Dividend - A portion of profits paid by a company to its shareholders. Shareholders of commercial private and public limited companies generally receive a return/profit from their investment in two ways: firstly the increasing value of the business is reflected in an increasing value of the shares held; secondly the value of a dividend paid (typically annually), based on a per-share rate, normally determined by the board of directors, which represents a proportion of the profit made by the business for the year. For smaller owner-managed and family businesses a dividend usually offers a more tax-efficient way to extract profit from a business by its owners, compared to salaries/bonuses subject to high personal taxation rates. For larger corporations, especially big public corporations providing essential services such as utilities, transport, communications, etc., shareholder dividends can be highly controversial, because dividends are paid from profits of a which a portion must also be reinvested in the business for improvements, efficiences, growth, future liabilities, etc., and which also customers can argue could be used to contain or reduce prices. Within modern free market economics, shareholder dividends are a major and neglected aspect of the psychological contract.
Docking Station - A device to which a notebook computer or a laptop can be connected so it can serve as a desktop computer.
Document Sharing - Used in video-conferencing. A system which allows people in different places to view and edit the same document at the same time on their computers.
Dog - An informal slang term for an investment which has shown a poor performance. The slang term dog may also refer to other poor-performing elements within a business, for example a product or service within a company range, as in the widely used 'Boston Matrix'.
Dollar-Cost Averaging - Known in the UK as Pound-Cost Averaging. The practice of investing a fixed amount of money at fixed times in particular shares, whatever their price. A higher share price means less shares are purchased and a lower share price means more shares can be purchased.
Dolly - In the entertainment industry, a piece of equipment on wheels which allows the camera to move smoothly for long walking shots.
Dotcom - an internet business, or the internet business sector.
Double - In the film and TV industry, a person who stands in, or is substituted, for a principal actor.
Double-Blind - A method of testing a new product, usually medicine, in which neither the people trying the product nor those administering the treatment know who is testing the real product and who has been given a placebo containing none of the product.
Double-dip Recession - A recession during which there is a brief period of economic growth, followed by a slide back into recession, before final recovery. Also called a W-shaped recession. See recession shapes.
Double-dipping - The practice, usually regarded as unethical, of receiving two incomes or benefits from the same source, for example receiving a pension and consultancy income from the same employer.
Double-Entry Bookkeeping - An accounting method which results in balanced ledgers, i.e., for every transaction a credit is recorded in one account and a debit is recorded in another.
Double Indemnity - A clause in a life insurance policy where the insurance company agrees to pay double the face value of the policy in the event of accidental death.
Doula - A birthing or labour coach, from the greek word doule, meaning female slave.
Drayage - The fee charged for, or the process of, transporting goods by lorry or truck.
Drip Advertising - An advertising campaign in small amounts over a long period of time to ensure that the public is continually aware of a product or service.
Drum-Buffer-Rope - A method, usually in manufacturing, which ensures an efficient flow of work in a production process by taking into consideration any possible delays or problems which may occur.
Duopoly - Two companies, or a situation, in which both companies control a particular industry.
Dutch Auction - A type of auction which opens with a high asking price which is then lowered until someone accepts the auctioneers price, or until the sellers reserve price has been reached.
Dysphemism - The substitution of a neutral or positive word/phrase with a replacement word/phrase that has a more negative/pesimistic effect. The opposite or inverse of a dysphemism is euphemism. Both are widely used in press and public relations communications. Extreme examples are unethical at best, and criminally dishonest at worst.
Dystopia - The opposite of Utopia, a society in which conditions are characterised by human misery, depirvation, squalor, disease, etc. The term is said to have been coined by by John Stuart Mill in 1868 in a UK House of Commons speech criticizing the government's Irish land policy.
Ajit Patel UK, Sanda Wellbeing and Sanda Wellness Group, Goldshield Group