Some New, Some Old… Terms Used in Business in Today’s Economy

It wasn’t too long ago; say 2-3 years ago, that these terms were not used in everyday business to describe where we are; where we’re going; what limits presses upon us in achieving our business goals: analytics, guardrails, highways, headwinds, tailwinds, bandwidth, dashboards and mobility.

Today, the population segments commonly known and grouped as Generation Z (or Centennials) and Millennials, use the aforementioned terms in business without much stress, actually without little problem at all, while Generation X Baby Boomers and especially the Traditionalist, struggle. 

These terms are very important to understand and not to be used haphazardly. We want to define them in a manner that will be simple and usable across all those of us in all generations that find ourselves making our livings in the coatings, paints, adhesives, sealants & specialty chemicals industries.

Analytics: In the recent past we used to provide research data from all positions in the value chains of activity and call it a database. The various definition sources define the ANALYTICS process as the discovery, interpretation and communication of meaningful patterns in data. Especially valuable in areas rich with recorded information, analytics relies on the simultaneous application of statistics, computer programming and operations research to quantify performance. Organizations may apply analytics to … Learning analytics • Behavioral analytics • Predictive analytics

• Business analytics

Wikipedia defines “Business analytics (BA) refers to the skills, technologies, practices for continuous iterative exploration and investigation of past business performance to gain insight and drive business planning. Business analytics focuses on developing new insights and understanding of business performance based on data and statistical methods.

In contrast, business intelligence traditionally focuses on using a consistent set of metrics to both measure past performance and guide business planning, which is also based on data and statistical methods.”

Business analytics can answer questions like why is this happening, what if these trends continue, what will happen next (that is, predict), what is the best that can happen (that is, optimize).”

Dashboards: In business intelligence, Dashboard is a data visualization tool that displays the current status of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for an enterprise. Dashboards consolidate and arrange numbers, metrics and sometimes performance scorecards on a single screen. Hence Dashboards, like in an automobile with all the car controls in plain sight.

Bandwidth: Bandwidth literally, is the amount of data that can be passed along a communications channel in a given period of time. On the other hand, in business jargon, it is sometimes used to refer to the resources needed to complete a task or project.

Business Guardrails: are the rules or requirements we have decided as a management team to put in place and ensure we operate in a zone we are comfortable with. … For example, with any M&A investment consideration we make we have a defined EBITDA of 10x before we consider it successful. Therefore, before we consider …  Brand Guardrails – How To Keep Successful Brands On Track, we have previously developed a set of criteria “guardrails.”

Business Guardrails should be used effectively to maintain and drive improvements and efficiencies in product design, manufacturing, quality, customer experience and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

Highways: Wikipedia – is a main road, especially one connecting major towns or cities. In Computing a “HIGHWAY” is a pathway connecting parts of one computer system or between different systems.

Tailwinds: In business, the term “tailwinds” refers to or describes a situation or condition that will move growth, revenues, or profits higher. … In business, the term “headwinds” are the opposite of the tailwinds. Headwinds in business are situations or conditions that make growth harder.

The term “tailwinds” describes some condition or situation that will help move growth higher. For example, falling gas prices will help a delivery company be more profitable. Lower gas prices is said to be a tailwind for the freight services industry. “Headwinds” are just the opposite. It’s a situation what will make strategic progress more difficult to achieve.

Crosswinds: A crosswind is any wind that has a perpendicular component to the line or direction of travel. This affects the aerodynamics of many forms of transport.

In business, a crosswind effect would be an adjacent competitor. An adjacent competitor would be one that has no direct product substitute for you product but may have a completely different system that could displace your product.

Mobility:  (Wikipedia) Mobility includes technologies and services that enable people and goods to move around more freely. Mobility business models that impact how people and goods move across all modes of transportation (including pedestrian). Dominant mobility themes include autonomous, connected, shared and electric.

In the future, whenever CHEMARK refers to transportation, automotive, trucking, SUV’s, crossovers, sedans, rail, airplanes, conveyors, elevators, escalators, etc. . . . they will always be preceded by a heading called . . . MOBILITY.