One page at the front, written last, containing the conclusion and the recommended decision. It exists because the person who will act on the report may not read the rest of it, and the document is designed around that possibility rather than against it.
business
The duty of care
Sorgfaltspflicht. The duty of care. In German liability law, what is examined is whether the required care was exercised in the process — not only what happened as a result.
A person who followed the proper procedure and still caused harm stands differently from one who caused no harm but skipped the procedure.
The process carries legal weight in its own right.
The bootcamp
American retraining programmes compress entry to a field into a matter of months, in software, data, nursing and the trades. The premise is that a field can be entered quickly by somebody who was in a different one last year.
Recommendations
An American report ends with them, and a report that ends without them is regarded as unfinished. The analysis is the middle of the document. What the reader should now do is the point of it.
The calculation
Die Kalkulation. The German word for working out what something must cost — materials, labour, overhead, margin — and the noun is used as though it produces a result rather than an estimate. Das ist so kalkuliert ends a conversation about price. The figure was derived, and the derivation is available.
Alternative dispute resolution
American mediation and arbitration constitute a substantial professional industry, with certification bodies, rules, and clauses written into most commercial contracts. The contract itself anticipates that disagreement will be negotiated rather than litigated.
The generalist CEO
American chief executives move between industries — from consumer goods to technology, from aerospace to retail — and the appointments are made on general management record rather than sector knowledge.
The vocabulary of results
Results-oriented. A standard phrase on an American résumé. The claim is not that the person works hard or knows the field, but that they can be judged by what came out.
Deliverables. American project language names the output as the unit of work. Not tasks, not effort, not hours. The thing handed over.
Track record. Not qualifications, not references, not what someone believes about themselves. What has already been produced, and can be pointed at.
Best practice. Methods are adopted from a competitor, another industry, another country, on the grounds that they work. There is no loyalty in the concept — the practice earns its place by outcome and loses it the same way.
Return on investment. Every expenditure becomes a candidate for the calculation, including training, meetings, research and attention. The question is not whether the thing is good. It is what came back.
The dashboard
American organizations build screens of live numbers, borrowed in name and layout from the instrument panel of a vehicle. A dashboard exists for a driver. Everything on it is there because it tells you to turn, slow down, or stop.
Transferable skills
A standard American résumé heading and a standard interview argument: the claim that what was learned in one domain applies in another. The burden is on the field to show why the skills would not transfer.