Talk:Business speak

Untitled

I removed a large percentage of this article.. some of the definitions were outright sarcastic - e.g. "Opportunity — a task which is likely to generate little reward for a lot of work". Others, such as "d.b.a." and "business casual" are legitimate terms which suffer little or no abuse or misuse at the hands of business speakers. The rest of the article still needs to be sourced appropriately. This is not urban dictionary. Rhobite 05:21, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

True, it's just an poorly-referenced, badly-written free online American encyclopaedia written largely by students, the odd office jockey, and unemployed, completely lacking in any objectivity or suitable qualifications to edit almost anything on here... Wikipedia's now a byword for drivel.x

Dude, weak!

These examples are pretty weak (so I removed them):

• As discussed — a phrase by which the speaker reminds one that a conversation has taken place and no updates are needed, as in "The reports have been running and should be ready later today as discussed."
• Makes sense - an idea or plan that is perceived as a very good, well thought out concept. Used in cases where the commenting party desires to understate enthusiasm, usually in a competitive or bargaining situation.
• Next Steps — a phrase meaning what is left, or what else is necessary to achieve a goal, i.e.: "Now that we've defined the problem, what are the next steps in getting it resolved?"
• Via — By way of, or by means of. This word is ubiquitous in corporate America. In business-speak, one does not fax Joe the report. One sends Joe the report via fax.

Some of these are just common English phrases and the examples given seem to be the proper use of the phrases (i.e., not business speak). Plus, they were out of alphabetical order. Ufwuct 23:24, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

This article is weak in general and its not very professional, since this can be a serious topic.142.157.31.32 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 04:10, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Possible others

If anyone can find sources for these and cares to write them into the article, here are some I've come across: "Parking Lot", "Evergreen", "Punch List", "organizationalization" (I kid you not!). Ufwuct 23:28, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

• On a related note, I took off the rather superfluous list of other terms to consider, as that's not quite article-appropriate. This looks like a logical place to stash it:

Other terminology to consider " Offline this meeting", "Action Plan", "Synergy" or "harvest the synergies", "Streamline", "Pro-active", "Close of play", "Value added and "Back at the Ranch". However, I think we need to source the current batch before adding any more. - Vianello (talk) 20:27, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Merger proposal

The list of buzzwords article seems to overlap with this article, and has better citations. Maybe this article should be merged into that one? CosineKitty (talk) 21:26, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

Agree regarding the examples, as it is essentially the same thing as the list of buzzwords. However, I do think that the description for 'business speak' should remain on this page, followed by a link to the list of buzzwords article RWV564 (talk) 01:43, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Since every culture has their own buzzwords, it would be a mistake to relegate all buzzwords to just one category. For instance, New Age Buzzwords and Corporate Buzzwords have very little overlap, so they do not belong in the same category or on the same list. Each subculture's buzzword canon deserves its own page and list, perhaps with a master list linking them all. It's not as if we'll run out of web pages to write on...

9tmaxr (talk) 05:57, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Translations section

This section, while funny, was mostly uncited and controversial original research, along with some quotes removed from context. I have moved it from the article page to the talk page (below). If anyone wants to restore this, please do so in observation of Wikipedia rules on Citing Sources and Style. Vectro (talk) 19:29, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Translations

• A light bulb moment = "A good (often stolen) idea".
• My best ballpark figure = "A total guess, that I know is wrong".
• We need some out of the box thinking = “Create some ideas that will never work”.
• I don’t want to go down a Rabbit hole on the issue = “I’m not prepared for this”.
• The process is the Panacea = “I need more time and a keen Graduate to build a website”.
• Moving Forward = "Delegate to someone else".
• Thats a Nobrainer = "I can't be bothered to think about it".
• Highlight, Target & Focus Key Resource = "No one wants it".
• We’re on a Journey = “It’s bad now and it’s going to get worse, but by then, we’ll have all moved on”.
• Let's park that Idea = "That has no place in the discussion, so leave it for another time".
• Heads Up = "First View, normally wrong".
• You've moved the goalposts = "This is not what you asked me to do".
• We’ve Mixed results = “I’ve poor results with a bit of mediocre news”.
• An exercise in box-ticking = "An activity consisting of completely wasted effort".
• Low hanging fruit = "Lets do the easy stuff first".
• I just want to touch base with you = "Fancy a coffee ?"
• Starter for Ten = "Really bad first attempt".
• I'm very pro-active = "I saw it on someone's else's CV & thought it sounded good".
• Well he talks a good game = "He can't deliver on this".
• Go round it = "Do it all again because it's wrong".
• We need to ask the question! = "I don’t know".
• I need to get up to speed = "I don’t know anything".
• Lets take this Offline = "Neither of us knows anything".
• My mind is open on this issue = "I will never know anything".
• We need a holistic, cradle-to-grave approach = "A Plan."
• Challenging, but achievable = "Impossible and you will fail".
• Pareto the list = "There is too much to do".
• Work smarter, not harder = "Work harder or you're sacked".
• It’s not on my radar = "I’m not working on this".
• It's an aggressive schedule = "I can't do it in time".
• You need to flag it up = "Is it wrong ?"
• Get all my ducks in a row = "The Project's in a mess".
• No serious bugs have been reported = "No one has used it yet".
• Exam Question = "What I should have done".
• I need to manage stakeholder expectations on this = “I’m late, over budget, the spec's wrong and my customer doesn’t know”
• I don't want to point fingers = "...but it's your fault".
• I'll take that on Board = "You're talking total rubbish".
• You need to come to the party = "Do it my way".
• Let's start singing from the same hymn book = "Do it my way".
• Lets Slice and dice the data = "Do the Spreadsheet my way".
• Can we do a deep-dive on the data = "Do the Spreadsheet my way".
• We need to Benchmark our processes = "I need to visit a similar company to us in a nice location".
• Keep me in the loop = "Make sure you e-mail me".
• Push Back = "NO !"
• Welcome Meeting = "Free Food and a bad presentation".
• Let's do some blue-sky thinking = "Let's pretend nothing will go wrong (Used for the 2012 Olympic Bid)".
• Moving to a Matrix Management system = "No seniors will lose their jobs".

1986 Times (Nexis) 13 July, Most replies were standard management-speak: leadership, motivation and communication—the kind of terms offered by academics and consultants that can, and do, mean everything and anything.

1993 G. PITT in P. B. H. Birks Examining Law Syllabus xi. 65 It is necessary to start by mentioning some external constraints (or 'challenges' in present management-speak).

2000 J. SIMPSON Mad World, my Masters (2001) vii. 243 In the management-speak of today's television, this is known as 'multi-skilling', though we used to call it 'one-man-banding'.

In-line comments

Moved from the body of the article. As badly constructed as the article may be, conversation and commenting does not belong in it.

Drill-down

[This one comes from the world of computer software. Computer programs or applications which make use of complex hierarchical menus and submenus, all to be navigated by mouse, gave rise to the popularity of this term. To "drill down" is to navigate ever deeper into nested submenus in order to find a specific feature or option. The use of the term in business speak naturally follows from this sense.]

Per

[This is completely wrong. "Per" has never been an abbreviation. "Miles per hour" is not an abbreviation of "Miles pertaining to hour." "Per" is simply a short Latin word which means "through, by, by means of, corresponding to, or according to." Like "versus," "interim," "via," "et cetera" and hundreds of others, this Latin term was borrowed by English speakers, and became part of the language. In older printed English texts, it was italicized, as were all loan-words from Latin or other languages. "Per" the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it has been in common English use for over 600 years!]

Vertical

[Again, this entry is a bit off the mark. To say that "vertical" is a term which "adds no meaning to 'industry'" is not quite right. Although this term in business speak is probably overused, it does signify that a given market is narrowly specialized, and typically features reduced competition based on price as opposed to features. A vertical market for a product or service is one in which a generic solution is unlikely to be satisfactory, and so a successful sale will depend primarily on the provider's ability to address the highly specific requirements of a relatively small number of potential clients. A vertical market is what used to be called a niche market.] TGBX (talk) 04:51, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

I nominate "High Level"

"High Level" = The details of an elongated explaination. Example..."Give me a high level explaination of the status" If no one objcts, i'll add it Cosand (talk) 14:49, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

Inappropriate links

Many (most?) of the internal links on this page appear to link to pages that treat, not the biz-speak meaning of the terms as defined here, but other ideas named by the same word or phrase. Is there a reason for this, or is it just poor planning? Cnilep (talk) 01:18, 6 November 2011 (UTC)

Merge with Corporate jargon

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

Following this discussion, 'Business speak' and 'Workplace jargon' were both merged to Corporate jargon and a list of phrases from 'Workplace jargon' was merged to Glossary of business and management terms. Cnilep (talk) 07:46, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

---

I think both articles focus on the same concept - the use of language in business / corporate context. I don't see any significant differences between what they try to cover. Thoughts? --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 18:47, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

I agree the pages should be merged, but I think business speak should be the new title as it seems to be more the commonly used term. ~Asarlaí 19:03, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

I agree with the merge as well. According to Google's Ngram viewer, "management speak" is the most common, though I'm not sure how often this phrase occurs as a referent to this phenomenon (those are, after all, fairly common words that occasionally stand next to each other in sentences). Corporate jargon is the strongest name that doesn't have this issue. — Ƶ§œš¹ _{[ãːɱ ˈfɹ̠ˤʷɪ̃ə̃nlɪ]} 23:47, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

• I support the suggestion that these pages should be merged. I have no strong opinion about the page title, but in principle I support the idea suggested by both ~Asarlaí and Ƶ§œš¹ that it should be the most commonly used term. Cnilep (talk) 06:16, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
• Support Additionally, workplace jargon (apparently the UK term) should be included in the merge. I favor corporate jargon as the destination. I also notice that there's significant overlap between List of buzzwords#Business, sales and marketing and Glossary of business and management terms. I'm thinking the former should be migrated to the latter as a spinoff. --BDD (talk) 16:28, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

I've tagged workplace jargon for a merge here. — Ƶ§œš¹ _{[ãːɱ ˈfɹ̠ˤʷɪ̃ə̃nlɪ]} 04:49, 6 October 2012 (UTC)

• Support three-way merge of Business speak, Corporate jargon and Workplace jargon. Although I think that the first is subtly different in meaning from the others, they could easily be covered in the same article. (To me, "blue sky thinking", "touch base" and the like are business speak, but I wouldn't class them as corporate or workplace jargon, which is terminology used only in specific companies or industries.) As a Brit I don't consider "workplace jargon" to be a particular common term; I'd call generic buzzwords "management speak" and specific in-company terminology "company jargon". Dave.Dunford (talk) 16:15, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.