16 of the Business glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
Predicting future sales from the judgment, opinions and experience of people who know the market, such as experts, managers and salespeople, rather than from statistical analysis of past data.
Factors affecting a location decision that are difficult to measure in money, such as infrastructure, access to markets, skilled labour, political stability, regulations and local culture.
Research that collects non-numerical information about people’s opinions, feelings, motivations and attitudes, usually through interviews, focus groups, open questions or observation of small numbers of people.
The extent to which a good or service meets or exceeds customers' expectations and is fit for its intended purpose, consistently and at an acceptable price.
A system for preventing faults by setting and checking quality standards at every stage of production, from suppliers and design to delivery, so that output is right first time.
A small group of employees doing similar work who meet regularly to identify, analyse and solve problems related to quality and working methods, and present their solutions to management.
The process of checking finished output, or samples of it, against agreed standards, so that faulty products are found and rejected or reworked before they reach customers.
An agreed set of requirements for a product, service or management process, set by a national or international body, against which a business can be independently assessed and certified.
Factors affecting a location decision that can be measured numerically, such as the costs of land, labour and transport and the value of government incentives.
Research that collects numerical data, such as how many people buy a product or what percentage prefer a design, which can be measured, counted and analysed statistically.
One of the three values that divide a set of ordered data into four equal parts: the lower quartile (Q1), the median (Q2) and the upper quartile (Q3).
In force field analysis, a situation that stays stable because the driving and restraining forces acting on it are equal in strength, but that changes as soon as either set of forces changes.
The part of the economy that provides knowledge-based services, such as research and development, information technology, data analysis and consulting.
A product with a low relative market share in a fast-growing market, which needs heavy investment and may become a star or fail; also called a problem child.
A written set of questions, in a fixed order, used to collect information from respondents in a survey.
A sampling method in which the population is divided into groups and a set number of people is chosen non-randomly from each group, usually in proportion to its share of the population.