table stakes
Bureaucratic/ˈteɪ.bəl steɪks/phrase (evasive)
Etym.From poker, where it denotes compulsory betting amounts; migrated into corporate parlance circa 1990s as a sterner synonym for baseline requirements, see Kowalski 2008, Business Lexicon Review.
A rhetorical device that rebrands ordinary baseline requirements as nonnegotiable prerequisites, used to inflate modest needs and deter further scrutiny.
'This is table stakes for any vendor' - Q3 Board Deck, slide 47