The standard American merchandising structure: three versions of the same product at three prices, displayed together. The buyer is not asked whether the thing is good. They are asked how much quality they want to buy.
business
Compliance
An American corporate function with real authority in regulated industries, and a defensive posture nearly everywhere else. It is described as a check on the business rather than as part of it, and the phrasing gives away where the centre of gravity sits.
Quality assurance
Qualitätssicherung. German manufacturers run quality assurance as a function with its own department, its own reporting line and its own authority to stop production. The person who can halt the line does not report to the person responsible for output.
High potential
American companies identify and label a cohort marked for advancement, with separate development programmes and accelerated moves. The judgment is about trajectory rather than about current performance.
Settlement
The overwhelming majority of American civil lawsuits end in settlement rather than judgment, and courts actively encourage it — mandatory settlement conferences, court-annexed mediation, judicial pressure to resolve. The trial is the mechanism of last resort, and the system is designed to avoid reaching it.
The trade press
Germany sustains an unusually dense Fachzeitschrift sector — periodicals for individual industries, trades and professional specialisms, many published for decades. The reader is assumed to want depth in one field rather than breadth across several.
The price point
An American term for a position in a market rather than a number on a label. Products are designed to a price point, which means the specification is derived from the price rather than the price from the specification.
The reorg
American companies restructure frequently, and the restructuring is usually about who controls which market, product line or customer segment. The process documentation is rewritten afterwards to match. It follows the settlement rather than constituting it.
The quality officer
The German Qualitätsbeauftragter has authority independent of production management and, in regulated industries, may halt release. The person who defines the process is deliberately placed outside the line that would benefit from bending it.
The crafts ordinance
Die Handwerksordnung. German law reserves fifty-three trades to those holding a master qualification, on the stated ground that improper execution endangers health, safety or life. Quality in these trades is not a market outcome. It is a condition of being permitted to work.