Department
Kurums Decoded: business and corporate terms explained for Gen Z in plain, pop-culture English. Corporate, translated.
Net 30 is a common payment term on invoices meaning the full amount is due within 30 days, usually counted from the invoice date. It is a form of short-term credit between businesses: the seller delivers first and waits to be paid, while the buyer gets a month to use the goods or service before the cash leaves.
A supply chain is the full network of companies, people, activities and transport involved in getting a product from raw materials to the final customer. It usually includes suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, shipping companies and retailers, along with the flow of information and money that keeps all of those steps coordinated.
A benchmark is a reference point used to judge performance, usually a figure from competitors, an industry average, your own past results or a target. Benchmarking is the habit of comparing your numbers against that reference so you can tell whether a result is good, normal or worrying, rather than guessing in isolation.
Inventory turnover is a measure of how many times a business sells and replaces its stock over a period, usually a year. It is commonly calculated as cost of goods sold divided by average inventory. A higher number generally means stock moves quickly; a lower number means goods sit on shelves or in warehouses for longer.
Depreciation is the accounting method of spreading the cost of a long-term asset, like a machine, vehicle or laptop, over the years it is expected to be useful. Instead of counting the full price as an expense when it is bought, a business records a portion each year, reflecting the value it uses up over time.
Employer branding is how a company is seen as a place to work, and the deliberate effort to shape that reputation. It covers what the company promises employees, often written down as an employee value proposition (EVP), and how that promise shows up in job ads, social media, interviews, employee reviews and word of mouth.
Synergy is the extra value created when two businesses or teams combine, so that the whole is worth more than the parts added up. In mergers and acquisitions it usually means specific savings or extra sales the combined company expects to get, and it is often the main reason given for paying a premium for a deal.
A performance review is a structured evaluation of an employee’s work over a set period, often six months or a year. It usually combines a self-review, the manager’s assessment and sometimes a rating, and it often feeds into decisions about pay rises, bonuses, promotions and development plans for the next period.
A roadmap is a plan that shows what a product or technology team intends to work on over the coming months and why. It sets direction and priorities, grouping work into themes or time horizons, so everyone from engineers to sales knows what is coming, what is later and what is not planned at all.
Break-even is the point where total revenue exactly covers total costs, so the business makes neither a profit nor a loss. It is usually measured in units sold or in sales value. The basic formula is fixed costs divided by the contribution per unit, which is the selling price minus the variable cost of each unit.
A forecast is a prediction of how much a team or company will sell, earn or spend in a coming period, usually a month or a quarter. In sales it is the number reps and managers expect to close, built from the deals in the pipeline and judgment about which ones will really sign, and it is updated as deals move.
Valuation is the estimated value of a company, usually expressed as a single price for the whole business. For public companies it falls out of the share price. For private companies and startups it is agreed between buyers and sellers, often during a funding round, using methods like revenue multiples, comparable deals and discounted cash flow.