Do you know these business abbreviations? CEO, Inc., Ltd., HR...

176,393 views ・ 2015-12-23

Learn English with Rebecca


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Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. In this lesson, you'll learn 10 common abbreviations that
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you should know if you work or want to work in the business world. Okay? It's possible
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you have heard many of these, and possibly not. So, let's make sure that you know all
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of them. Okay.
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So, first I'm just going to read them to you, and you can see if you've heard them before
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or if you know what they are. Okay?
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"CEO", "PR", "HR", "ISO", "ROI",
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"MBA", "VAT" or "V-A-T", "USP", "Ltd.", and "Inc."
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Okay? So, possibly you've heard some of these before.
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Let's go into them in more detail.
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So, what is a "CEO", or better still: Who is a CEO?
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So, a "CEO" stands for "Chief Executive Officer". Okay?
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And the Chief Executive Officer is the most senior executive in a corporation,
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in a for-profit corporation. Okay? So he's the topmost executive.
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All right? That's the CEO.
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"PR". Okay? What does "PR" stand for?
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"PR" stands for public relations. So, this term
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could define the field or it could def-... Describe a department in a particular company
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or corporation. And what is the job of this department? Their job or their responsibility
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is to spread information to the public about the organization, about the corporation, maybe
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in the form of new developments, in the form of press releases. Okay? If there's a crisis...
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Or even if something negative happens, it's the job of the public relations department
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to communicate that in a positive way. Sometimes they have a different section, crisis communications,
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but basically, "PR" stands for "public relations". Good.
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"HR". Okay? So, "HR" is something that you probably have heard before, especially if
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you've ever been for a job interview, you might have met an HR representative. So, "HR"
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stands for "human resources". Now, the term "human resources" can, again, refer to the
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entire field of managing people, it can refer to a particular department in a company that
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is responsible for all of the personnel that work in that organization or that company.
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All right? It's responsible for hiring them, for training them, and for all the administration
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that has to do with the staff or the personnel that work in that company. Okay? But HR, as
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in human resources, can also just refer to the people themselves-okay?-who work in a
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particular place. All right.
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Next is "ISO". All right? Now, this stands for "International Organization for Standardization".
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Okay? It's a long name for a very important organization, and it's a group that basically
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confers or gives quality certification to different companies for their products, for
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their materials, for their processes. They set quality benchmarks or quality standards.
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Okay? So you might see in a particular company that they are ISO 9,000 certified or something
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like that, and that's very important because it indicates that they have a certain degree
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of quality in that organization regarding that area. Okay? So it's basically an organization
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that sets quality benchmarks, ISO. Okay?
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Next is "ROI". Okay? So "ROI" has to do with finance. And it's basically... Stands for,
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first of all, "return on investment".
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"ROI", "return on investment".
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So, ROI is a profitability
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ratio that helps finance people to determine if a particular investment is going to give
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them profit or give them savings. All right? So that's what the "ROI" stands for,
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"return on investment", and it's a profitability ratio. Okay.
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Next: "MBA". That, you probably have heard of. Okay? We might hear somebody saying:
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"He has an MBA." Okay?
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Now, you noticed that I said "an MBA". Why did I say "an MBA"?
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Do you know? Usually, we say "an" before a vowel. Right? But, it's not only before a vowel.
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It's actually before anything that has a vowel sound. So the... The letter "m" is like "e-m",
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"em", so therefore, we cannot say: "He has a MBA",
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we say: "He has an MBA." All right?
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Or: "He is an MBA."
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We also say that. And an "MBA" stands for "Master of Business Administration".
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So, it's a graduate business degree. Okay? It's a very popular graduate degree in business.
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All right?
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Next is "VAT" or "value-added tax".
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So, value-added tax is a very common tax on goods and services,
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usually in Europe-okay?-you'll hear this a lot. "Is the VAT included in the price?" The
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value-added tax. Okay? There are different taxes, of course, in every country and every
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part... Or part of the world, but a VAT...
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VAT is a very popular common tax in Europe especially.
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All right, "USP". So, what's "USP"? "USP" stands for "unique selling point" or
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"unique selling proposition", and that's a term from the field of marketing.
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So, your USP... If you're selling a product,
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then it has to have a USP. It has to have something special about
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it that will make people want to buy your product, and that special thing, that special
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quality, that special something is the... Your USP, your unique selling proposition
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that makes people choose your product over another product. Okay?
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Next we have two terms that are very commonly used: "Ltd." And "Inc." And both of them basically
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refer to corporations that have been incorporated, in fact. Okay? What does that mean when something
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is limited? What is actually limited, do you know? What's limited is the liability, which
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is the financial responsibility in case there are any debts. In case the company loses money,
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then the corporation, which is an entity, which is a body by itself is the one that
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people come to to try to collect their money; and they don't go to particular individuals,
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to people, to their homes to get their money. So, that's what's "limited". It's actually
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"limited liability" or responsibility for financial burdens. Okay? So, don't say "Ltd."
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Some people, by mistake, say: "Ltd.", it's not really correct. You should say: "Limited",
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even though you see "Ltd." in short. And this one is sometimes pronounced "Inc." or otherwise,
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you say the whole term, which is "incorporated". Okay?
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So, let's just review quickly. What's HR?
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Human resources.
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What's ROI?
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Return on investment.
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Good. What's VAT?
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Value-added tax.
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Who's the CEO?
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Chief Executive Officer.
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What's your USP?
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Unique selling proposition.
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What's PR?
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Public relations.
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What's the ISO? Well, you don't have to know the actual
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"International Organization for Standardization",
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just know that it's... What it does. Okay? So it sets those quality benchmarks, quality standards.
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And MBA is your
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Master of Business Administration. And these terms: "Ltd.", "Inc." refer to
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limited liability, which means that the company is incorporated. Okay?
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So, if you want to know more about these, if you want to practice them and get really
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comfortable with these terms and these abbreviations, please go to our website: www.engvid.com.
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There, you can do a quiz on this. You'll also have a chance to see these written out, like
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"CEO, Chief Executive Officer", and so on, in our quiz,
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so you'll have a chance to reinforce what you already know so well now. Okay?
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All the best with your English. Bye for now.
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