the various elements that together make up the substance of a deal or compromise between two or more parties, with “puts” being the items of value that are offered or contributed, and “takes” referring to one side’s requirements or the value it expects to capture; these can serve as bargaining chips that are metaphorically placed on or removed from the table during negotiations; used in the context of deals that have a lot of moving parts, suggesting many small details that must be analyzed and valued appropriately before a successful conclusion can be reached, as in “We need to lay out all the puts and takes before we go ahead with this joint venture”

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to be a consumer of the product or service that one’s employer offers to the general public, thus simultaneously inhabiting the role of customer as well as seller; originated in the technology industry, in which companies used their software for their internal operations, forcing them to grapple directly with the instability and bugs inherent in code development; in a broader business context the phrase is usually divorced from its technical origins, and the unappetizing nature of dog food and the comical imagery it evokes makes it informal; if prefaced by a negative (“He won’t…), can serve as an indication that the subject is unwilling to share in the burdens or unpleasantness that he imposes on others; it remains unclear why any party, at any time, would be willing to ingest dog food, either their own or that belonging to someone else; not used by those who wish to be understood

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an adjective that indicates that the following analysis will be exhaustive and require significant effort, as in, “We need to do a bottom-up look at those valuation models”; depending on context may mean starting from scratch or evaluating something from its most elemental components, in a form of inductive reasoning; used when the hypotheses or principles that would support a top-down, deductive reasoning approach are deficient or cannot be determined; can also be used to give listeners confidence that the referenced work has been thorough and no pertinent details have been overlooked

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to work hard, studiously, and/or without interruption, as in: “I was cranking on that analysis for six hours last night”; used when ambiguities have been sufficiently resolved and the next step is to execute along some determined course of action; the term confers on the worker the attributes of a machine, which goes through its motions relentlessly, without halt or complaint, and evokes the crankshaft of an engine, which spins continuously and rapidly as it operates; used most often for tasks that require attention to detail but are not intellectually rigorous; compare to riff, which refers to more casual attempts to address an issue

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an expression indicating the expected benefits of a certain action will be too trifling to merit the expenditure of energy required to obtain them, usually deployed in relation to a discrete object, as in “Don’t redo the calculations to account for inflation, it’s so minor the juice won’t be worth the squeeze; similar to boil the ocean, which refers to something more expansive or voluminous, and to mouse milking, which is used when a more outré descriptor is required; a contrasting but also citrus-related phrase is squeeze the lemon, for when the metaphorical object in question is less desiccated

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(push back in verb form, pushback if used as a noun) formerly the sole domain of airplanes leaving their gates, this term is used to indicate resistance or disagreement without actually expressing those potentially controversial feelings explicitly, as in: “Let me just push back on your proposal for a second here” or “The new CTO is getting a lot of pushback on his plans to switch vendors”; although it suggests a milder opposition, it may belie a resolute determination to impede the progress of, or thwart entirely, the idea in question

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(verb) to plunge rapidly and completely into a situation in a manner that involves some unpleasantness or surprise on the part of the dippee, as in: “Look we know working for Andrew is tough, everyone gets sheep-dipped on their first project with him”; from the farming practice of dunking sheep in a solution containing chemicals designed to protect them from various skin infestations, a process which requires full immersion to achieve maximum protection; the unsuspecting animals being so treated often react as you might expect, bleating in confusion and scrambling to escape the tank containing the liquid, unaware of the reason for dipping; in a business context can refer to something abrupt or shocking, which may or may not be beneficial to the one dipped

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to fine-tune the balance of something in precise fashion in order to achieve a desired outcome, as in “I think we need to better titrate how we blend logic and emotion in the new marketing campaign”; derives from the process in chemistry of adding incremental quantities of a reagent to a test substance until a desired reaction occurs; also used in medicine to describe the process of adjusting a pharmaceutical dosage until the optimal trade-off of symptom relief and side effect minimization is achieved; coined by someone who spent too much time in the laboratory, or who wishes to co-opt the credibility of white-coated scientists by using their terminology; not likely to be understood when used in a business context, but as listeners would be loath to expose their own ignorance by asking for clarification usage of this jargon is unlikely to be questioned

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an obscure expression apparently of British military origin that suggests a degree of crudeness of analysis such that finer details are glossed over, as when someone with particularly meaty paws attempts to point out a location on a smaller map; failing to assess the exact geographical features of a particular area can lead to significant complications when battle strategies are executed; in a business context the term may suggest imprecision, lack of nuance, tact, or subtlety; can be a way to derogate a leader whose big picture perspective is too lofty to be useful when it comes to implementation; related to slice butter with an ax, which indicates a more willfully overbearing approach

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analyses or work products that are prepared but kept in reserve for intense times when additional output will be required, as in, “We don’t need to share the findings from the customer survey at tomorrow’s meeting, let’s keep some dry powder for the next quarterly business review”; more generally the term refers to a resource of some kind that is kept at the ready for immediate deployment when needed; commonly used in finance to refer to liquid reserves or assets that can be readily converted (for investments, debt payments, etc.); drawn from the former military need to manufacture sufficient quantities of gunpowder, transport it, and maintain it in firing condition wherever needed in the theater of battle; powder that became wet from rain, improper storage, etc., would no longer be suitable for use, a condition which could be discovered at inopportune moments

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