Business C1 · Lesson 7B
Every word and expression from this lesson — with definitions, synonyms and examples.
the small-number quantifier that names the top of a portfolio distribution
the concessive universal that admits variation instead of asserting uniformity
the exposure created when too much of the portfolio's expected value rests on any single bet
the discipline of naming the true shape of the portfolio in the front half of the sentence
the experiment that appears to have worked but has not, in fact, resolved the question the bet was set up to answer
the negative quantifier that names the honest shortfall in the pipeline
the practice of keeping a transformational bet alive long enough to reach its own payoff, made possible by earlier quantifier honesty
the deliberately mixed set of core, adjacent and transformational bets whose combined shape, not any one bet, is the answer to the board's question
the pre-agreed conditions under which a bet is stopped rather than re-scoped — the only defence against the sunk-cost re-argument
the rate at which each experiment updates the team's model of the world — the true unit of innovation productivity
'none, not one, few if any' — the words that buy the writer permission to redirect capital at the next review
the softened universal that keeps the writer out of the 'all our bets are on plan' trap
the aggregate return across the full innovation portfolio, of which only a handful of bets are expected to carry the number
the piece of permission a small-number or negative quantifier places with the board for use six months later
the ratio between the small number of experiments whose results actually move a decision and the many whose results decorate the deck
'few, a handful of, only, not every' — the words that name the true shape of an uneven portfolio
the checkpoint at which a bet either draws its next tranche of funding or is retired — protected only by named quantifier discipline
'all, every, each' used in the wrong place — the sentence that stops the room listening
the sentence that describes the portfolio the writer wants shown, not the portfolio as it is