The Language of Business
June 20th, 2007Last week I was waiting at a railway station, near a bloke in standard corporate attire with a conference/security pass hanging around his neck. He was talking loudly into a PDA:
…and I need to know how much bandwidth you have this week to capture some face time with their team. We need to work out a game plan and credentialise our offerings in that market…
I barely managed to restrain myself from saying “Bingo!”. Although every industry needs a certain amount of jargon, there’s something especially ridiculous about most business buzzwords, perhaps because they’re not describing complex concepts or specific technologies. If I’m in a meeting with someone who’s constantly throwing around daft phrases it gives me the (usually accurate) impression that they’re clueless and superficial.
‘Credentialise’ is just horrible…

