31 weird ‘work terms’ only used as acronyms and what they really mean

There’s a RFD because the CTR for your website decreased and a QA test is required by EOD - You are not the only one if you find yourself nodding to that with a confused smile during an official meeting.

Every company today expects its fresh MBA recruits to know these terms from the day they join. While some of us have the guts to ask for clarification when we have no idea what’s being said, others of us cringe at the thought of asking potentially “stupid” questions. Either ways, it’s a situation nobody wants to end up in.

Therefore, we’ve rounded up a few such terms commonly used terms that you’re likely to run into at work. Here’s what they are:

1. ABC – always be closing
Always be closing (ABC) is retail jargon used to describe a sales strategy in which a salesperson should constantly look for new prospects, pitch products or services to those prospects and complete the sale.

2. CAD – computer aided design
Computer-aided design and drafting (CADD), is the use of computer technology for design and design documentation. CAD software replaces manual drafting with an automated process. If you work in the architecture, MEP, or structural engineering fields, you've probably used 2D or
3D CAD programs.

3. DOE – depending on experiment
You will see this term usually in business job postings

4. EBITDA – earning before interests, taxes, depreciation and amortization
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) is a measure of a company's operating performance. Essentially, it's a way to evaluate a company's performance without having to factor in financing decisions, accounting decisions or tax environments.

5. EOD - end of day
End of day (EOD) is the end of the trading day in financial markets, the point when trading ceases.

6. ERP - enterprise resource planning
Business management software that a company can use to store and manage data from every stage of business

7. ESOP – employee stock ownership plan
An ESOP is a type of employee benefit plan which is intended to encourage employees to acquire stocks or ownership in the company.

8. ETA – estimated time of arrival
Used for knowing the client arrival time for business meetings. This is often used generally to know flight arrival time.

9. B2B – business to business
Business-to-business (B2B) refers to a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another.

10. B2C – business to consumer
Business to consumer refers to a business that sells products or provides services to end-user consumers

11. IPO – initial public offering
The act of offering the stock of a company on a public stock exchange for the first time.

12. KPI – key performance indicators
A key performance indicator (KPI) is a business metric used to evaluate factors that are crucial to the success of an organization. KPIsdiffer per organization; business KPIs may be net revenue or a customer loyalty metric,

13. LLC – limited liability company
a private company whose owners are legally responsible for its debts only to the extent of the amount of capital they invested.

14. MILE - maximum impact, little effort
15. MOOC – massive open online course
16. NRN - no reply necessary

17. MSRP – manufacturer’s suggested retail price
The manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), list price or recommended retail price (RRP) of a product is the price at which the manufacturer recommends that theretailer sell the product.

18. NDA – non-disclosure agreement
A non-disclosure agreement (NDA is a legal contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict access to or by third parties.

19. NOI – net operating income
Net operating income (NOI) is simply the annual income generated by an income-producing property after taking into account allincome collected from operations, and deducting all expenses incurred from operations

20. OTC – over the counter
Over-the-counter (OTC) or off-exchange trading is done directly between two parties, without any supervision of an exchange. It is contrasted with exchange trading, which occurs via exchanges.

21. QC – quality control
Quality control (QC) is a procedure or set of procedures intended to ensure that a manufactured product or performed service adheres to a defined set of quality criteria or meets the requirements of the client or customer.

22. RFP - request for proposal
A request for proposal (RFP) is a solicitation, often made through a bidding process, by an agency or company interested in procurement of a commodity, service or valuable asset, to potential suppliers to submit business proposals.

23. ROI – return on investment
A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments.

24. RRP – recommended retail price
The manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), list price or recommended retail price (RRP) of a product is the price at which the manufacturer recommends that the retailer sell the product.

25. SEO – search engine optimization
Search engine optimization about trying to rank higher in search engines. To rank higher you make changes to your website that make it easier for search engines to understand your content.

26. SLA – service level agreement
A service level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a serviceprovider (either internal or external) and the end user that defines thelevel of service expected from the service provider.

27. VAT – value added tax
A type of consumption tax that is placed on a product whenever value is added at a stage of production and at final sale.

28. VPN – virtual private network
A remote-access VPN uses a public telecommunication infrastructure like the Internet to provide remote users secure access to their organization's network.

29. RFD - Request for discussion

30. CTR – Click through rate
It’s the proportion of visitors to a web page who follow a hypertext link to a particular site.

31: QA - Quality assurance
It is a way of preventing mistakes or defects in manufactured products and avoiding problems when delivering solutions or services to customers; which ISO 9000 defines as "part of quality management focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled".