Glossary
This Glossary of Terms is intended to explain some of the key concepts and ideas which are useful to creative entrepreneurs.
Please contact us if you would like to suggest other terms to be added.
Balance Sheet. This financial document shows the net worth of a business or organisation at a particular point in time by stating its assets and liabilities.
Balanced Scorecard. A technique for measuring the performance of an enterprise in four equally important areas: financial; internal systems, creativity and innovation; customer satisfaction and retention; and the learning and growth of staff.
Business Formula. Your unique mixture of particular products/services at which you excel, carefully selected customers or target markets, which can combine to produce the desired financial result, consistent with your Values.
Cash Flow. The cash flow report states where money came from and went to over a particular period of time. A cash flow projection indicates when cash inflows and outflows are expected to occur in the foreseeable future.
Competitive Positioning is the technique of analysing where you currently fit in amongst competing businesses, deciding where you should be and identifying your own ‘high ground’ on the competitive battlefield.
Co-opetition. Sometimes competitors can also co-operate as partners in projects or joint ventures. ‘Co-opetition’ is the result of bringing together competition and co-operation to form not just a new word but also a new partnership.
Creative Industries are “those activities which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent, and which have a potential for job and wealth creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.” (Department of Media, Culture and Sport. UK Government.)
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is an ability to manage ourselves and our relationships with other people effectively, by understanding our own and other people’s feelings, recognising that we human beings have an emotional as well as a rational side to our make-up.
External Analysis. An assessment of the forces in the changing world which the enterprise cannot control yet can affect the organisation positively or negatively as opportunities or threats. Also knowns as Environmental Analysis.
Four Ps of Marketing – see Marketing Mix.
ICEDRIPS. An acronym serving as a checklist for External Analysis. The letters stand for: Innnovation; Competitors; Economics; Demographics; Regulations; Infrastructure; Politics; and Social Trends.
Income and Expenditure Account. This shows the profit (or ‘surplus’) made over a particular period of time, usually one year. It is also sometimes called the Profit and Loss Account or Income Statement.
Intellectual Property (IP) is the product of creative ideas, expressed in works.
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are the legal powers associated with the ownership, protection and exploitation of creative ideas expressed in works.
Internal Analysis. An assessment of an enterprise’s strengths and weaknesses. Creative enterprises can use the PRIMEFACT checklist to help this process.
Market Segmentation is the process of dividing actual or potential customers into groups with similar characteristics, for example geography, gender, age, needs, industry or whatever is most useful or relevant.
Marketing Mix. This is a blend of the Four Ps of Marketing: Product, Price, Promotion and Place (which really means Distribution).
Mission describes what we are going to do to achieve our Vision. A ‘mission statement’ is simply a specific description of what the organisation actually does – its contribution to the world and society – so that employees, customers and other stakeholders understand what the business needs to excel at.
PRIMEFACT. An acronym serving as a checklist for internal analysis of strengths and weaknesses of a creative enterprise. The letters stand for: People; Reputation; Intellectual Property; Market Information; Ethos; Finances; Agility; Collaborators and Talents. more >>>
Profit and Loss Account – see Income and Expenditure Account
Risk Analysis. The technique of listing all risks facing the enterprise and ranking them according to their likelihood of happening and the potential negative impact on the business. The point, of course, is to minimise the risks, focusing first on those risks that score high on both counts and making plans to make them less likely to happen and/or have a lesser impact if they do.
SWOT Analysis. A review of the internal Strengths and Weaknesses of a business or organisation and the external Opportunities and Threats in the changing world in which it operates.
Triple Bottom Line. As well as the traditional financial ‘bottom line’, the Triple Bottom Line approach also measures the social benefits and environmental impact of an enterprise.
Values describe how we are going to conduct ourselves along the road to success.
Virtual Organisations can be ‘invisible’ insofar as there is no identifiable headquarters; its members might be geographically remote and probably connected through the Internet.
Vision describes where we are going – the ‘promised land’. The vision is the enterprise’s ‘dream’ of the future, a picture painted in words, which is intended to inspire people by appealing to the heart as well as the head.
July 13, 2011 at 5:36 pm