Business terminology

Here are some civil-military term equivalents:

Administration - a term understood in the military as the day to day functioning of a unit or formation. In civvy street, this would be classified as "operations". The term "administration" is used generally to imply the functions of facilities (or utilities) management, transport fleet management, house keeping and other such. Some more traditional companies club "Human Resource Management" in administration, referring to it as a concatenated "HR and Admin". Here "admin" may be limited to facilities and housekeeping or may be expanded to refer to all cost centres (cost accounting units of indirect costs) including IT. The term "Business administration" used in B-schools includes the three mega functions of sales & marketing, finance and operations.

Operations - the closest equivalent is a "project", defined as an endeavour, with a definite beginning and ending, and intended to deliver a unique product, service or result. And like military operations, all projects have terms of reference (or constraints), usually expressed in the form of a budget or deadline.

Salesforce are the frontline troopers or the infantry and the use of terms such as "road warriors" and "in the trenches" in reference to this group is common. Sales are ultimately responsible for fulfilling demand, whereas marketing focuses on creating demand and managing the brand. "Rolling out the artillery" here could imply anything from big budgets, to bringing in the fat cats from the corporate head office face to face with the client, to putting up grand shows or events to impress the customer.

Finance is about sources and application of funds. Though finance is the prime responsibility of the board and the executive, the finance department is responsible for the implementation of decisions whether these pertain to investments, raising of capital, disposal of surplus (dividends, retained earnings), estimation of budget, management of cash, etc. It also deals with financial controls and the measures needed to monitor them. Accountancy refers to the process of recording, reporting and analysis of the financial transactions of the business for the purpose of communicating these to the management or other stakeholders.

Here is the tricky one. On the face of it, a majority of officers are not exposed to finance in the traditional sense. They may handle unit accounts of different types (accountancy), but are never concerned with raising capital. The trick is in considering "capital" as "firepower". Once you make this leap of imagination, correlate "ground" to "market" and "enemy" to "competitor" and you are all set.

The equivalence of the concept of "customer" was difficult to correlate initially, but when you consider it (and companies seek to deliver "value" to customers), you will quickly realize that you always had a customer and that is the "nation state" or indrectly its citizens through their elected representatives. The "value delivered" is "national security", or more specifically (as national security has a very diverse set of connotations), security against external aggression, with the caveat that in the 21st century, the role of the defence services too is changing rapidly (whether we are adapting rapidly enough is topic for a seperate chapter) and at the same time, getting rather nebulous with considerable overlap with other functions of the state (again a separate chapter).

The "value" can also be looked at as a "risk cover" as in the insurance business. Since "risk" is based on perception, it is difficult to quantify and therefore difficult to determine the "risk premium" (read defence budget) payable.

But lets get back to our discussion on the connotations of "capital". Consider this. You have "assets". You have "capital". Some of your capital went to procure assets. Assets are capacities, capabilities or just plain old reserves. Investment in capital assets (capital budgeting) requires strategic inputs, considering the time period for operationalization (or "commissioning") of each asset category. Here I am referring to the evaluation-procurement-commissioning cycle. An asset like a new CNC machine may be operationalized within a year. A thermal power plant may take 3-5 years from concept to commissioning. A new weapon system usually takes even longer. Defence purchase cycles are long and tedious affairs usually taking decades to finalize, to be delivered, for its tactics to be evolved and finally to be fully integrated.

At the unit level, you already have assets associated with a set of capabilities. In an operation (read "project"), specialized units are integrated into a cohesive body (the ORBAT). What is the function of this body? It is anything but "guarding the border"! Primarily, and at at whatever level in the organization, you are concerned with sources and application of available "funds"(read "capital"). You analyze "ground" and "enemy" (read "market" and "competition") and invest "capital" in the form of "deadly violence" to maximize return. As in business, you have strategic and tactical objectives. In civilian terms, you are both "director" as well as a "business manager" as you determine type and quantum of investment to maximize returns, and further, you are concerned with utilizing resources at your disposal efficiently to deliver short term objectives.