You’re sitting in a boardroom. Or maybe a cramped Zoom square. The meeting has been going on for forty-five minutes, someone is droning on about Q3 projections, and you glance at the bottom of the printed agenda. There it is. Three little letters: AOB.
What does AOB stand for? It stands for Any Other Business.
It sounds simple. Almost too simple. But in the world of corporate governance and professional communication, these three letters are a minefield. They represent the "wild card" slot of a meeting. It’s the moment where someone brings up a brilliant new idea or, more often, the moment where a disgruntled colleague airs a grievance they’ve been sitting on since Tuesday. If you've ever felt that sinking feeling when a meeting is about to end and someone says, "Actually, I have something for AOB," you know exactly what I'm talking about.
The Traditional Definition: Any Other Business
In formal meetings, specifically those following Robert's Rules of Order or similar parliamentary procedures, the agenda is king. You stick to the points. You don't deviate. But because life is messy and things happen between the time an agenda is printed and the time the meeting starts, we have AOB.
Basically, it's a catch-all.
It exists to ensure that nothing vital is missed. If a pipe burst in the warehouse ten minutes before the meeting started, it doesn't have a dedicated slot on the agenda. It goes in Any Other Business. This keeps the meeting organized while providing a safety valve for urgent updates. Without it, you’d have to wait until the next scheduled gathering, which might be a month away. That’s a lot of water in the warehouse.
Why AOB is Secretly a Productivity Killer
Honestly, most productivity experts hate AOB. People like David Grady, who famously gave a TED talk on "The No-Agenda Meeting Museum," argue that these open-ended slots are where time goes to die.
Here is the problem. AOB lacks a "goal."
When you have a specific agenda item, like "Review Marketing Budget," you know what success looks like. You look at the numbers, you approve or reject them, and you move on. With Any Other Business, there is no boundary. Someone might mention that the coffee machine is broken. Suddenly, fifteen high-paid executives are debating the merits of French Press versus Keurig.
That is a massive waste of company money.
If you are running a meeting, you've got to be careful. If you leave AOB as a wide-open door, people will walk through it with trivialities. Smart chairs—the people running the meeting—often ask for AOB items at the start of the meeting. They’ll say, "Does anyone have anything for AOB?" If someone says yes, the chair decides right then if it’s worth the group’s time or if it should be a separate email.
Different Meanings in Different Worlds
While "Any Other Business" is the heavyweight champion of this acronym, it’s a bit of a polysemous beast. Context is everything. If you aren't in a boardroom, AOB might mean something entirely different.
The Construction Site: Assignment of Benefits
In the insurance and construction industries, AOB stands for Assignment of Benefits. This is a legal arrangement where a policyholder (like a homeowner) signs over their insurance claim benefits to a third party, usually a contractor.
It sounds helpful. You have a leaky roof, the contractor says "I’ll handle the insurance company for you," and you sign the AOB. But this has become a massive point of contention, particularly in states like Florida. It can lead to "vendor-driven litigation" where contractors sue insurance companies for more money, driving up premiums for everyone else. It’s a legal tool that turned into a systemic headache. If you're looking at a contract and see AOB, read the fine print. You are literally giving away your rights to the insurance money.
The World of Gaming: Area of Benchmark
If you’re deep into PC hardware forums or competitive gaming, you might see AOB used in reference to Area of Benchmark. This is more niche. It refers to a specific section of a game used to test hardware performance. You want a "heavy" AOB—a part of the game with lots of explosions or complex lighting—to see if your GPU can actually handle the heat.
Medicine and Anatomy: Accessory Olfactory Bulb
Doctors and neuroscientists use AOB to refer to the Accessory Olfactory Bulb. This is a part of the brain involved in processing pheromones. It’s much more developed in many mammals than it is in humans, but it’s still a critical piece of the neurological puzzle when studying how animals communicate via scent.
The Social Media Slang: All On Board?
Sometimes, though rarely, you’ll see AOB in a text message. "Are we AOB for tonight?" It’s a lazy way of asking if everyone is All On Board.
I wouldn't recommend using it this way. It hasn't really caught on like "BRB" or "LOL." If you text your friends asking if they are AOB, they will probably assume you’re asking about their insurance benefits or their thoughts on the meeting agenda. Stick to "we good?" or "you in?"
How to Handle AOB Like a Pro
Since you’re likely here because of a business context, let’s get practical. How do you survive the "Any Other Business" portion of a meeting without losing your mind or your lunch hour?
If You Are the Meeting Leader
Don't save the "Are there any AOBs?" question for the very end. That’s a trap. By the time you get to the end, everyone is mentally checking out. They’re looking at their watches. They’re thinking about lunch.
Instead, try this:
- Call for AOBs at the beginning. List them on the whiteboard or the shared screen.
- Filter them immediately. If someone wants to talk about the holiday party but you’re in a budget meeting, tell them to put it in an email.
- Set a time limit. "We have five minutes for AOB. Let's make them count."
If You Are a Participant
Don't be the person who drops a bombshell in AOB. If you have a serious issue that needs 20 minutes of discussion, it is disrespectful to bring it up when the meeting is scheduled to end.
The best way to use AOB is for FYIs.
- "Just a heads up, the office will be closed on Friday for maintenance."
- "I’ve uploaded the new templates to the server if anyone needs them."
- "Quick reminder: the charity drive ends tomorrow."
These are short, require no debate, and keep people informed. That is the true value of the "Any Other Business" slot.
The Evolution of the Acronym
The interesting thing about AOB is that it’s actually disappearing in some modern corporate cultures. Agile and Scrum methodologies, for instance, don't really use it. In a "Stand-up" meeting, the format is rigid: What did you do? What will you do? What’s blocking you? There’s no room for "Any Other Business" because the goal is extreme efficiency.
However, in non-profits, school boards, and government agencies, AOB remains a staple. It represents a democratic ideal—the notion that every member of the committee should have a chance to speak, even if their topic didn't make the official cut.
📖 Related: Target Norwalk: What We Know About the New Store Opening
A Quick Reference Checklist
Just to keep things crystal clear, here is the hierarchy of what AOB usually means depending on where you are standing:
- In a Boardroom: Any Other Business (The end-of-meeting catch-all).
- At a Construction Site: Assignment of Benefits (Giving your insurance rights to a contractor).
- In a Lab: Accessory Olfactory Bulb (Pheromone processing in the brain).
- In a Hospital: Alcohol on Breath (Clinical shorthand for intoxication).
- In a Hardware Lab: Area of Benchmark (Testing computer performance).
Moving Forward With AOB
Whether you’re dealing with an agenda or an insurance claim, the key to AOB is clarity. If you see it on an agenda, ask yourself if you have any "housekeeping" items that others need to know. If you see it in a contract, put your pen down and call a lawyer.
The next time a meeting chair asks if there’s any other business, you’ll know exactly what they’re looking for—and more importantly, you’ll know when to keep your mouth shut so everyone can go home on time.
To improve your meeting culture immediately, try removing AOB from your next agenda entirely. Instead, replace it with a section titled "Urgent Information Only" and see how much faster your team gets back to actual work. If a topic requires a discussion longer than two minutes, it deserves its own dedicated meeting or a well-crafted email thread rather than a rushed conversation at the tail end of an unrelated session.