Many Consulting firms talk about “Plain English” but all firms use a considerable amount of business/consulting jargon. These terms are commonly used words in Consulting offices, in interviews and increasingly in the news media as Consultants have a greater impact on society. You should be familiar with them, and even try to include one or two of these phrases in your conversations with Consultants and in interviews.

• 20,000 feet: The big picture—e.g., “The view from 20,000 feet.” Other variants include “30,000 feet,” “bird’s eye view,” and “the 1,000 mile view.”
• 80/20: Also known as the Pareto Principle, this guideline suggests that 80% of the value of effort can be achieved in 20% of the time. It is a constant reminder in the industry to focus on the most important aspects of a project, rather than getting mired in the details, trying to achieve 100% of the results in far less time.
• Actionable: Can be acted upon or can be done. For example: “That recommendation is not actionable because we do not have the managerial talent to implement it.”
• Adding value: A general phrase that can mean a number of things, but all of them revolve around the idea of being productive in a positive way. Evolved from the concept of “value added.”
• At the End of the Day: A very common phrase used to describe the final or ultimate result, or the urgency of a priority. In other words, “a very important point we can’t forget.” For example: “I know these projections are difficult to complete. At the end of the day, this presentation needs to include headcount estimates or else the client will not be happy.”
• Bandwidth: Availability. For example: “I will have bandwidth to take on that project after I complete this customer attrition model.”
• Beach: Refers to a Consultant that is not actively enrolled in any project and therefore not on a billable project. For example: “John has been on the beach for two weeks and is starting to worry about his value to the firm.”
• Best of breed: Something that is considered superior to its substitutes; can apply to many things in Consulting. See “Best Practices.”
• Best practices: Developing benchmarks for practices or techniques that have shown superior results relative to other practices or techniques.
• Blanks: PowerPoint slides that are drawn on a notepad. More senior Consultants often describe a presentation yet to be drafted by “blanking” a series of slides and giving them to a junior Consultant to perform the work required to complete them.
• Boil the ocean: Describes what might occur if a Consultant is not being focused enough. For example: “We don’t need to boil the ocean to get the exact number on this. Just make an estimate based on historical data for one product line.”
• Bottoms-up: Developing an estimate by starting with the lowest-level assumptions and building those all the way up to an estimate. For example, estimating market size by starting with individual products and prices and adding up to a total industry size. Contrast with “Top-down.”
• Buttoned-down: Completed thoroughly and professionally. For example: “Get this customer acquisition model buttoned-down and then we’ll move on to international market sizing.”
• Buy-in: Agreement and/or consent. For example: “Do you have the CEO’s buy-in?”
• CAGR: Acronym for Compound Annual Growth Rate. For example, if a market grows from $100 billion to $230 billion over the course of 9 years, the CAGR is 9.70%. This is analogous to Internal Rate of Return in Finance.
• Case: A consulting project. (Also called a Study or an Engagement.)
• Change management: A service provided by consulting firms to help with a period of major company change, such as an acquisition or a major shift in strategic priorities.
• Circle back: To catch up again later, but used to indicate that now is not the right time. For example: “Let’s circle up after the 5 p.m. call. I have a few tweaks to make to my model.” Compare with “Touch base.”
• C-suite: Refers to any number of executives with a capital C at the beginning of their title (the C stands for “Chief.” For example: COO, CFO, CEO, CIO, CMO, etc.
• Core: The chief concerns of a company or business unit. For example: “We need to exit these three business lines and focus on our core product.”
• Core competencies: Similar to Core, but usually used to address areas where a company performs very well compared to competitors or similar companies. For example: “Our core competencies in procurement have led to larger gross margins than other manufacturers.”
• Critical path: The key tasks needed in order for a process to achieve a desired result.
• Deck: A slide presentation, typically in Microsoft Powerpoint.
• Deliverables: Tasks to be completed.
• Drill-down: To get beyond the higher-level summary in to the details. Compare with “Weeds.”
• Due dil:  Short for due diligence, this is a reference to the work involved in a thorough research/study of a particular topic. For example: “Have you done the “due dil” on that particular acquisition target?”
• Elevator pitch: The results and key conclusions in roughly a paragraph. Derived from the idea of being able to convince someone of something important within the span of a shared ride in an elevator.
• Engagement: A consulting project. (Also called a Case or a Study.)
• Facetime: Meeting in person or being in the office to promote the impression of being productive. For example: “I have no work to do but I need to go into the office on Saturday to put in a little facetime.”
• Gain traction: Have a client or senior person engaged in an idea. This is an important concept for selling new Consulting projects, and/or for suggesting an addition or change to a Consulting workplan.
• Greenfield: New opportunity. For example: “Entering the Indonesian insurance market is a true Greenfield opportunity for the Company.”
• Guesstimate: An educated guess. Can also be called a WAG (“wild-ass guess”) or a SWAG (“scientifically wild-ass guess”).
• Hit the Ground Running: The ability to add value in a project quickly, meaning getting up to speed on the important details and understanding and taking on next steps quickly. This is a valuable capability for any Consultant, especially junior ones.
• Leverage: Make use of; translate into additional gains. This is an extremely common Consulting word. For example: “We need to leverage the core competencies we have in the mortgage lending business to our other product lines.”
• Low-hanging fruit: The things that can easily get done. For example: “This company should focus on the low-hanging fruit within the target market first, and worry later about acquiring the more difficult customers.”
• Managing Up: Helping superiors to do their job better by giving them feedback, keeping them in the loop, and anticipating problems they may have and helping them resolve them. Managing up is an incredibly valuable skill for junior Consultants.
• MECE: Stands for Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive. A standard for developing communications that cover all of the relevant issues effectively without redundancy. Very prominent concept at McKinsey.
• Mission-critical: A product, concept, analysis, or service that is irreplaceable. For example: “Do we really need this expensive item? Is it mission-critical?”
• Pipe or Pipeline: Short for pipeline and refers to upcoming projects the Consulting firm may have available (e.g. Supervisor, what is in the pipe?)
• Push Back: To indicate to a superior Consultant that something is difficult or challenging and may not be realistic. Being able to push back effectively when a manager may be overpromising or unrealistic is an important, delicate skill. Pushing back can also be done if the Consultant is being overworked and feels “stretched too thin.”
• Progress Review: A periodic meeting to review progress made and results from time to time. Can also refer to a professional performance review for a Consulting.
• Rock-star: Star performer, i.e., someone who shows impressive capabilities and is often in high demand for new projects. For example: “John worked 100 hours last week and completed the best merger analysis I’ve seen in years. He is the rock star of his class.”
• Sea Change: A major shift. For example: “There has been a sea change in the past decade in terms of how retail banks interact with their clients, and how they prioritize customers based on profitability.”
• Smell Test: Determining whether a result makes sense based on intuition and experience. For example: “This analysis doesn’t pass the smell test. If it is accurate, then it means that this division accounts for over 200% of our client’s market capitalization!” Derived from the idea of smelling food or drink before consuming it, to make sure it isn’t rotten.
• Study: A consulting project. (Also called a Case or an Engagement.)
• SWOT analysis: Analyzing the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats for a company or set of companies in an industry.
• Thinking out of the box: The ability to be creative or innovative in solving a difficult problem. “Thinking out of the box” typically is a blanket solution to a difficult problem that no one has solved yet.
• Top-down: Developing an estimate by starting with the highest-level assumptions and using estimates to drill down to a smaller-level estimate. For example, estimating market size by starting with the number of potential customers and estimating how many purchase the product, how frequently, and at what price points. Contrast with “Bottoms-up.”
• Touch base: To catch up with someone, typically a person with whom you’ve not had much contact lately. For example: “I’ve been dealing with another client all week and I know I owe you some numbers. We’ll touch base after my afternoon conference call.”
• Value-add: A takeoff on “value added,” which is based on the notion of increasing shareholder wealth by contributing to the profitability and therefore value of a firm. Now used to describe anything that “adds value,” i.e., is positive, productive, and helpful. For example: “Consultants are clearly value-add professionals.”
• Weeds: The intricate details of an analysis. Compare with “Drill-down.”
• White space: An opportunity for company to generate revenue where it is not currently. For example, generating revenue from an existing product in a new market.
• Workplan: A schedule for completing a project or set of tasks for a project. The workplan is a dominant issue in all Consulting projects.
• Writing a deck: Compiling a slide presentation, typically in Microsoft Powerpoint.

There are so many more. Please feel free to add to our list by commenting on this page or emailing us a suggestion.

←Consulting Interview Questions & Answers