![]() ![]() "Dharmesh's culture code incorporates elements of HubSpeak. Friedman, "Jargon: It’s Not the Business World’s Fault!" The Boston Globe, September 15, 2013) "For several years, Mark Liberman, a linguist at the University of Pennsylvania, has been keeping an eye on the words and phrases that are condemned as business-speak, and he has noticed that as much as 'mission statements' and 'deliverables,' what gets under people’s skin are expressions like 'impactful,' 'at the end of the day,' and 'low-hanging fruit.' As he has investigated these expressions, he noted in a post last month on the blog Language Log, he has found that they are as common in sports, politics, social science, and other spheres as they are in business." "Business-speak, with its heartless euphemisms and empty stock phrases, is the jargon that everyone loves to hate. "In an infamous December 2012 press release, Citigroup announced that it would begin 'a series of repositioning actions that will further reduce expenses and improve efficiency,' resulting in 'streamlined operations and an optimized consumer footprint across geographies.' Translation: 11,000 people would be repositioned out the door. ![]() "David Larcker, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business who has studied deception on investor conference calls, says that when executives 'start using a lot of jargon, it makes you wonder about the believability.' Rittenhouse, who analyzes shareholder letters for an annual report on CEO candor and reviews about 100 conference-call transcripts each year, has found that companies that use 'fact-deficient, obfuscating generalities' have worse share performance than more candid companies." (Noah Buhayar, "The CEO's Favorite Cliché." Bloomberg Businessweek, September 23-29, 2013) 'What would a more candid disclosure be? "We are focused." What does a laser have to do with it?'. Rittenhouse, CEO of Rittenhouse Rankings, who consults with executives on communication and strategy. The phrase 'laser-focused' appeared in more than 250 transcripts of earnings calls and investor events this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, on pace to eclipse the 287 in all of 2012. "At companies ranging from children’s book publishers to organic-food purveyors, CEOs are increasingly training powerful beams of light on their targets. ![]()
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