Buziness

I have always been fascinated by the use of buzzwords in business patois. Usually, the term is introduced from the head of the business and it spreads virally like an airborne infection. Everyone incorporates it as part of everyday speak and it morphs into the language of the business culture. A great example here is "transparency."

In business today, we routinely use words like: analytics, bandwidth, best practices, dovetail, circleback, core competencies, drink the Kool-Aid, granular, knowledge process outsourcing, metrics, long tail, mission critical, sustainability, offline, client-centric, convo and agnostic.

Looking at the new breed of buzzwords, I see a few head turners. Specifically:

• Baste the Turkey - To attend to a task that has been ignored for sometime
• Bizmeth – shortening of "business method"
• Boil the Ocean - To take on a task with an overwhelming and impossible scope
• Eat their own dog food – Also known simply as "dog food", meaning to use a product yourself which you sell to others
• Open kimono - To be open and transparent in discussions
• Siloed - Completely separated with no communication between
• Herding Cats -a task that is extremely difficult or impossible to do, due to one or more variables being in flux and uncontrollable
• Umbrella Wawi (I don't have a fucking clue what this means but I'd love to drop it in a conversation)

I like this collection of rhetorical hyperbole. I'm determined to find a way to introduce one of these expressions in an upcoming meeting...if only to see if it will virally spread.

Until then, I will endeavor to add this to my client penetration dialogue.