July 21, 2004

What Did He Say??? the New Techno-Speak

I love language. I began to talk at 7 months and was reading food lables at the market before I was 2. Unfortunatly I do have some difficulties and never learned to spell... or maybe its too much "Hooked On Phonics" As I spent time with my Dad I learned all the engineering jargon of the pencil, ink and mylar drafting suite as well as what was called then "NASA-speak..."From my Mother, music speak, Cuban speak, and the King James Bible, which has had a great influence on my writing and speaking.

Well " speak" of all kinds has always been around... its the verbal shorthand of trades, lifestyles even churches and organizations. Families have "speak" and we know that teens have "speak"of their own. The verbal short hand sometimes makes it into the popular lexicon, and I think that is nowhere more obvious than the computer-internet-techno-speak that we all use everyday.

So I found this article interesting as I have used variations of some of these and wonder if my variation is the mother or the child of these words and phrases...

25 Hot Buzzwords

Kate Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com Editor  

Have you ever attended a presentation that sounded impressive, but left you wondering what it all meant? Have you marveled at a colleague's ability to deliver a discourse consisting entirely of recycled phrases that sound brilliant but say nothing? Want to wow a potential employer with your "understanding" of today's workplace? Irksome as office buzzwords can be, you've got to admit the ability to string them together (while tossing in a few "mission-criticals" and "customer-focuseds" for good measure) is something of an art-form. Even if you don't think you can use them with a straight face, just knowing these buzzwords can come in handy when you want to deflate a pompous consultant, impress a "buzzing" interviewer, mask the absence of substance in a report, or are simply at a loss for words but need to sound authoritative. Corporate jargon and clichés are so pervasive that their use - or abuse - has yielded a buzzword of its own: "Deja Moo" (the feeling you've heard this bull before). Here are 25 of today's most popular buzzwords and euphemisms making the rounds in boardrooms and cubicles everywhere.

Air Cover When a senior manager agrees to take the flak for an unpopular decision, while someone lower in the chain of command does the dirty work. As in: "The CFO will provide air cover, while you reduce staff by half." (A term borrowed from the military.)

Alpha Pup A market research term referring to the "coolest kid in the neighborhood." As in: "If the alpha pups go for it, we'll sell millions of them."

Bleeding Edge Beyond cutting edge. So new, its creators aren't entirely sure where it's headed.

Business Ecosystems When companies in the same markets work cooperatively and competitively to introduce innovations, support new products and serve customers.

Chips and Salsa Refers to computers. Chips = hardware; Salsa= software.

Co-Evolution A theory that a company can create new business, markets and industries by working with direct competitors, customers and suppliers.

Cookie Jar Accounting An accounting practice where a company uses reserves from good years against losses that might be incurred in bad years.

Defenestrate A 17th century word, now back in fashion, that means to throw someone or something out the window. As in: "Let's defenestrate this marketing strategy."

Dial It Back To tone down. As in: "Your sales pitch is too aggressive. Dial it back."

800-Pound Gorilla A company that dominates an industry short of having a complete monopoly.

End-to-End Used largely by technology vendors to imply that whatever they build for one part of your organization will work with whatever they build for another.

Future-Proof To create a product that won't be made obsolete by the next wave of technological advancements.

Ideation Brainstorm session.

Living Document A document intended to be continually revised and updated.

Market Cannibalization When a company's new product negatively affects sales of its existing, related products, i.e., it eats its own market.

Optics How things appear.

Pain Points A favorite of consultants used to describe places where an organization is hurting due to poor operating structure, technology or inefficiencies.

Pockets of Resistance Another borrowed military term that describes a person or group that attempts to stall, block or kill a project.

Reaching Critical Mass Having enough customers or market share to become profitable.

Repurposing Taking content from one medium (books, magazine, etc.) and repackaging it to be used in another medium.

Reverbiagize To reword a proposal with the hope of getting it accepted by people who didn't like it the first time around. As in: "It's the same concept, we've just reverbiagized it."

Tszuj (Pronounced "zhoozh") To tweak, finesse or improve.

Value Stream Six Sigma term that encompasses every step in the process of producing and delivering a product or service (whether it adds value or not).

Value Migration Used in industries where there is little market growth, the term refers to the movement of growth and profit opportunities from one company to another.

White Space Opportunity New high-potential growth possibilities that are related to but don't quite match the capabilities and skills of the organization.

 

Cool  OK ... How many of these can I use in one sentence, or Paragraph?

Due to Value Migration, my organization is suffering from Pain Points and may have to Tszuj, or even Defenstrate its current Co-Evolution and Cookie Jar Accounting, taking into account that my business plan is a Living Document, I can Reverbagize it, refocusing its Optics via Ideation. By Repurposing new White Space Opportuniy, and refining my Value Stream, I can create a new Business Ecosystem, one that by End to End services allows me to create a Future Proof product that will reach Critical Mass, defeating all Pockets of Resistance and the 800 Pound Gorrilla....Whew...

Boy is that a lot of Deja Moo