business-level (competitive) strategy: Identifies the ways a business will compete in its chosen line of products or services.

concentration strategy: Involves focusing the company on one product or product line.

conceptual skills: Abilities to think in the abstract, diagnose and analyze different situations, and see beyond the present situation.

contingency planning: Identifying aspects of a business or its environment that might entail changes in strategy.

controlling: That portion of a manager's job concerned with monitoring the firm's performance and, if necessary, acting to bring it in line with the firm's goals.

corporate culture: The shared experiences, stories, beliefs, and norms that characterize a firm.

corporate-level strategy: Identifies the various businesses that a company will be in, and how these businesses will relate to each other.

cost leadership: Becoming the low cost leader in an industry.

crisis management: An organization's methods for dealing with emergencies.

decision-making skills: Skills in defining problems and selecting the best courses of action.

differentiation: A firm seeks to be unique in its industry along some dimension that is valued by buyers.

diversification: Expanding into related or unrelated products or market segments.

environmental analysis: The process of scanning the environment for threats and opportunities.

first-line managers: Those managers responsible for supervising the work of employees.

focus strategy: Selecting a market segment and serving the customers in that market niche better than competitors.

functional strategies: Identify the basic courses of action that each department in the firm will pursue so that it contributes to the attainment of the business's overall goals.

geographic expansion: Expanding operations in new geographic areas or countries.

goals: Objectives that a business hopes and plans to achieve.

horizontal integration: Acquiring control of competitors in the same or similar markets with the same or similar products.

human relations skills: Skills in understanding and getting along with people.

intermediate goals: Goals set for a period of one to five years.

investment reduction: Reducing the company's investment in one or more of its lines of business.

leading: That portion of a manager's job concerned with guiding and motivating employees to meet the firm's objectives.

long-term goals: Goals set for extended periods of time, typically five years or more into the future.

management: The process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling a business's financial, physical, human, and information resources in order to achieve its goals.

market penetration: Boosting sales of present products by more aggressive selling in the firm's current markets.

middle managers: Those managers responsible for implementing the decisions made by top managers.

mission statement: An organization's statement of how it will achieve its purpose in the environment in which it conducts its business.

operational plans: Plans setting short-term targets for daily, weekly, or monthly performance.

organizational analysis: The process of analyzing a firm's strengths and weaknesses.

organizing: That portion of a manager's job concerned with mobilizing the necessary resources to complete a particular task.

planning: That portion of a manager's job concerned with determining what the business needs to do and the best way to achieve it.

product development: Developing improved products for current markets.

short-term goals: Goals set for the very near future, typically less than one year.

strategic goals: Long-term goals derived directly from a firm's mission statement.

strategic plans: Plans that reflect decisions about resource allocations, company priorities, and steps needed to meet strategic goals.

strategy formulation: Creation of a broad program for defining and meeting an organization's goals.

SWOT: Identification and analysis of organizational strengths and weaknesses and environmental opportunities and threats as part of strategy formulation.

tactical plans: Generally, short-range plans concerned with implementing specific aspects of a company's strategic plans.

technical skills: Skills associated with performing specialized tasks within a firm.

time management skills: Skills associated with the productive use of time.

top managers: Those managers responsible for a firm's overall performance and effectiveness and for developing long-range plans for the company.

vertical integration: Owning or controlling the inputs to the firm's processes and/or the channels through which the products or services are distributed.

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