The benefit of business buzzwords

From Mark Jaffe at BNET:

"Business has to keep moving if it wants to look sharp, and often that’s accompanied by a fresh outbreak of buzzwords.

"Principle-centered leaders will go the extra mile, drilling down to the potential synergies between customer needs and brand touch points. While this strategy empowers a nimble few to ramp up, stay ahead of the curve and validate best practices within their networks, it also wrongsizes scalable mindshare ­due to the sheer volume of mission-critical heavy lifting. Not to mention the blocking and tackling. Correct me if I’m wrong — but at the end of the day, it’s like herding cats!

"Did you have difficulty following that? Good. Now let’s get back inside the box for a moment.

"Success in business is defined by growth and change. It’s not that complicated, really, yet the contribution of each era quickly defaults to the jargon it creates, the verbal illusion that we’re the ones who will finally cut the crap and revolutionize the economy. The old lexicon would serve admirably if, once in a while, someone had a new idea or two. If not, maybe bandaging old ideas with new words will suffice.

"Imagine you just wrapped up that expensive Harvard MBA and wangled an interview with the marketing department at General Mills. You tell them…what, exactly? That if they hire you, Cheerios will continue to be a top consumer brand? No, that won’t do it. You’re going to need Advanced Terminology.

" Try this: 'As we initiate pushback on the paradigm shift and gain traction ­– you know, actionable leverage — by examining gap analysis data on the more seamless core competencies at our centers of excellence, it’s possible to take this to the next level of penetration without having to circle back on predictable low-hanging fruit. In other words, we can bring value-add to the table and capture a win-win solution so long as we stay on the same page and keep everyone in the loop regarding margin factor learnings for deliverables. That’s our takeaway, net-net.'"