The process of applying increasingly depressing hypothetical scenarios to a financial model until a potentially exciting venture is rendered entirely unviable.
What they actually mean
"Let's make these numbers look so thoroughly miserable that nobody can blame us for deciding to do nothing."
Heard in the wild
"Before we present to the board, we need to sensitise the projections for a worst-case scenario."
The financial methodology of starting with a desired, highly optimistic target number and reverse-engineering a series of fictional assumptions to make it look mathematically inevitable.
"We need a twenty percent margin, so let's back-solve the operational costs."
Translation
"I am going to work backwards from a lie."
Squeezing every ounce of utility out of existing machinery, software, or human capital until they experience a total and catastrophic system collapse.
"Rather than hiring a new analyst, we're going to focus on sweating the assets we already have in place."
Translation
"We are going to work you until you cry, because we don't have the budget for a replacement."
The practice of running hypothetical, catastrophic market scenarios to prove a portfolio's resilience, usually conducted right before a completely unpredicted crisis renders it useless.
"We ran a comprehensive stress-test on our balance sheet, and we are perfectly safe unless the interest rates change, which they won't."
Translation
Applying mathematical reassurance to a fundamentally unpredictable future.