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How to Speak Like a Business School Grad
By Venessa Wong
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MBA Glossary

If you’re like most people, you don’t understand your doctor and your lawyer when they started babbling in professional jargon. The same is true for most non-MBAs. Bschool grads talk about “deliverables” and “best practices,” they “think outside the box” and “take 30,000-ft. views”--but do you really have any idea what they mean? Even some words that are recognizable take on completely different meaning, such as “lean” or “leverage.” Then there are the words, such as “actionable” and “monetize,” that could make a lexicographer’s toes curl. But if you never went to business school and want to know what the heck people in your next meeting are speaking about, this handy glossary will fill you in faster than you can say “Six Sigma”!

Click here to learn how to speak like a MBA.

Have any other MBA terms you’d like to define? Send an email to vwong70@bloomberg.net

Photographer: Justin Lewis/Getty Images