By the tiswa editorial team, from the official sources listed at the end of this guide. How we write our guides
Halfway through a group presentation in Principles of Marketing, someone says "target audience" for the third time and the professor asks how it differs from the target market. Silence. The English was fine. What was missing was the Arabic equivalent and one example to hang it on. Each entry below gives you both, plus a warning where students usually slip.
Which business terms in Arabic do you need in your first term?
Five come up in nearly every management course, from Principles of Management to Organisational Behaviour:
- Vision and mission (الرؤية والرسالة): you will write both in every business plan.
- Objective (الهدف): specific, measurable and time-bound.
- KPI (مؤشر الأداء الرئيسي): the number that proves you moved toward the objective.
- SWOT analysis (تحليل SWOT): the first tool any project brief asks for.
- Stakeholder (صاحب المصلحة): anyone your decision affects or who can affect it, from an employee to a ministry.
Planning and organisation terms
| English | Arabic | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Strategy | استراتيجية | A long-range plan that points resources at goals. |
| Benchmarking | المقارنة المرجعية | Measuring yourself against the best competitors. |
| Break-even point | نقطة التعادل | The sales level with neither profit nor loss. |
| Risk management | إدارة المخاطر | Spotting, rating and preparing for risks. |
| Business plan | خطة العمل | The idea, market, funding and operations on paper. |
| Budget | الموازنة التقديرية | Forecast revenue and spending for a coming period. |
| Return on investment (ROI) | العائد على الاستثمار | Profit relative to cost, written as a percentage. |
| English | Arabic | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Organisational structure | الهيكل التنظيمي | Who does what and reports to whom. |
| Delegation | التفويض | Handing over authority while the manager stays accountable. |
| Span of control | نطاق الإشراف | How many people one manager supervises directly. |
| Governance | الحوكمة | Rules for running a company and overseeing its management. |
| Supply chain | سلسلة الإمداد | A product's route from supplier to customer. |
| Lean management | الإدارة الرشيقة | Cutting waste while keeping customer value. |
| Six Sigma | ستة سيجما | A quality method that reduces defects and variation. |
What are the business Arabic words for marketing?
Marketing is where students keep the English untouched, since ad platforms and analytics dashboards are all in English. That works at an agency. An Arabic research paper still expects the equivalent.
| English | Arabic | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing mix (4Ps) | المزيج التسويقي | Product, price, place, promotion. |
| Target market | السوق المستهدف | The customers the product is meant for. |
| Target audience | الجمهور المستهدف | Whoever the message is aimed at, who may not be the buyer. |
| Segmentation | تجزئة السوق | Splitting customers into similar groups. |
| Positioning | التموضع | Where the brand sits in the customer's mind. |
| Value proposition | عرض القيمة | The benefit promised and the reason to choose it. |
| Customer persona | شخصية العميل | A data-based sketch of a typical customer. |
| Conversion rate | معدل التحويل | Share of visitors who took the desired action. |
| Customer acquisition cost (CAC) | تكلفة اكتساب العميل | Average spend to win one new customer. |
| Customer lifetime value (CLV) | القيمة الدائمة للعميل | Expected profit over the whole relationship. |
| Churn rate | معدل فقد العملاء | Share of customers lost in a period. |
| Sales funnel | قمع المبيعات | The stages from awareness to purchase. |
| A/B testing | الاختبار المقارن | Two versions, and the better one wins. |
| SEO | تحسين محركات البحث | Ranking higher in unpaid search results. |
| Call to action (CTA) | دعوة لاتخاذ إجراء | The button or line that names the next step. |
Try the maths once. A Riyadh perfume shop's page gets 2,000 visitors and 60 of them buy: 60 ÷ 2,000 is a 3% conversion rate. Divide the campaign spend by those 60 new buyers and you have the customer acquisition cost.
HR terms
You meet these in Human Resource Management and again in your first employment contract. Several have a fixed Arabic name in Saudi regulations, so use it rather than translating on the fly.
| English | Arabic | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Recruitment | الاستقطاب | Attracting suitable candidates. |
| Job description | الوصف الوظيفي | Duties, responsibilities and requirements of a role. |
| Onboarding | تهيئة الموظف الجديد | Introducing a new hire to the job and culture. |
| Probation period | فترة التجربة | The trial stretch before a hire is confirmed. |
| Performance appraisal | تقييم الأداء | A regular review against agreed goals. |
| Turnover rate | معدل دوران الموظفين | Share of staff who leave in a period. |
| Succession planning | تخطيط الإحلال | Preparing people for future leadership roles. |
| Compensation | التعويضات | Pay and financial benefits. |
| Employee engagement | ارتباط الموظفين | How committed staff feel to their work. |
How are small and medium businesses classified in Saudi Arabia?
Graduation projects often study a Saudi company, and the first question is how big it is. Do not guess "small". The SME authority, Monsha'at, classifies a business by full-time headcount and annual revenue, and when the two point to different sizes the higher band applies.1
| Band | Full-time staff | Annual revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Micro (متناهية الصغر) | 1 to 5 | Up to SAR 3 million |
| Small (صغيرة) | 6 to 49 | Over 3 million to 40 million |
| Medium (متوسطة) | 50 to 249 | Over 40 million to 200 million |
| Large (كبيرة) | 250 or more | Over 200 million |
Which business Arabic words do students mix up?
- Efficiency (الكفاءة) is doing the work with fewer resources; effectiveness (الفاعلية) is hitting the goal. An efficient team can quickly ship something nobody needed.
- Competency is also translated كفاءة in HR books, but it means the mix of knowledge, skill and behaviour. Put the English in brackets to avoid the clash.
- Target market and target audience differ: a toy ad speaks to children and sells to parents.
- Churn is for customers; turnover is for staff.
- A policy (سياسة) sets what and why. A procedure (إجراء) sets how and in what order.
- Brand is the whole image; trademark (العلامة التجارية) is the registered mark.
Some Saudi colleges teach business entirely in English. The College of Business Administration at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University in Dammam is one; it awards bachelor's degrees in accounting, banking and finance, and management information systems.2 Students there need the Arabic side most, because their textbooks will not give it to them.
To weigh the major itself, read the business administration major guide, the marketing major guide and the HR major guide. Money words live in the accounting and finance glossary, and number-heavy projects benefit from the data analysis roadmap.
