In a post called The Good, The Bad, and the Buzzy, Inc. takes a concise and sometimes humorous look at buzz words and jargon it would prefer never to see again.
(From Inc.)
15 Business Buzzwords We Don’t Want to Hear
Actionable: A high-energy noun gone passive and flabby. Authenticity: Has become its own antonym through overuse. Best of breed: Try not thinking of springer spaniels. Brain dump: Why treat creativity like construction waste? Co-opetition: Business doesn’t need a version of frenemy. Disintermediate: Has the same number of syllables as “cut out the middleman” with none of the clarity. Incentivize: First, it’s not a word. Second, what’s wrong with motivate? Mindshare: Our psyches are not Florida condos. Offline: Annoying in meetings (“Let’s take this offline”). We’re already offline! We’re surrounded by human beings! Outside the box: A cliché about not thinking in clichés. Proactive: Ugly corporate-ese, but without a decent synonym. Anyone? Repurpose: You are recycling. Just say so. Solution: A shame, what has happened to this word. Synergy: This bastard child of synthesis and energy is godfather to every enigmatically named tech company. Value-add: Devalues the concept of value. Talk shouldn’t be quite this cheap.
Having been pitching for a world of jargon-free PR for a decade or more, I applaud Inc. for this fine piece. When we surveyed major media on words they hated most more than five years ago, they named: solutions, leading, leading provider, leading edge, cutting edge, seamless, state-of-the-art, best-of-breed, robust, end-to-end, first mover, customer-centric, mission critical, turnkey.
Quite a collection. As for best words? The media we talked to didn’t specify any favorite words, just a concept: provide newsworthy items, facts and good ideas, please.
(From Inc.)
15 Business Buzzwords We Like
Angel: What better metaphor for the answer to an entrepreneur’s prayers? Bandwidth: The rare tech term that translates to human beings. Big Hairy Audacious Goal: Humor makes the phrase memorable; hyperbole makes it motivational. Core competency: Ruthlessly focuses the leader’s mind. Cube farm: Truthful but whimsical. Elevator pitch: A business drama in miniature. Empower: A little treacly, but also clear and authoritative. Frictionless: Great image for how processes should work. Just in time: Suggests not just efficiency but salvation. Killer app: Succinct, clear, intimidating. Knowledge worker: Judges employees not by the color of their collars but by the content of their brains. Learning organization: Celebrates both continuous improvement and humility. Management by walking around: Humble yet vivid. Push the envelope: A cliché we like. Must be the Right Stuff association. Stickiness: Perfectly describes content that compels users to return.
Inc. has always been one of our top targets. To get on their radar, I think we’ll give them an elevator pitch about our client who has angel financing, a BHAG and has empowered staff and provided the bandwidth to push the envelope in search of a new killer app with ultimate stickiness. This learning organization has knowledge workers who work frictionless and with great core competencies in their cube farm, where the CEO manages by walking around. Think they’ll buy?
Posted by Tom Gable
[...] As reported earlier, David Meerman Scott analyzed 711,123 press releases distributed during 2008 by North American companies. He filtered for 325 gobbledygook phrases and issued a report. The top 10: innovate, pleased to, unique, focused on, leading provider, commitment, partnership, new and improved, leverage, and 120 percent. Inc. Magazine followed with its own list of bad buzz words. [...]
A round of applause for your blog post.Really looking forward to read more. Really Cool.