The A to Z of Plain Text
BUSINESS-SPEAK
Business-speak, corporate-ese, MBA-speak. Call it what you like, the language of the corporate world rarely makes rewarding reading. Why do businesses say things like: 'Our mission is to provide innovative solutions that drive value into our customers' businesses'? Here are several reasons:
- The truth just doesn't sound 'important' enough -- OK, so what you actually do is provide consulting services for the telecoms sector. Why not say so?
- If we don't use the latest jargon, everyone will laugh at us -- they'll laugh a lot more when you try and explain what 'envisioneering' is...
- We want to make our products sound as awesome as possible -- who doesn't? But describing them as an 'end-to-end turnkey solution' is not the best way. By the time the customer has worked out what you're talking about, it may be too late
- Baffling customers is what we do for a living -- there's no hiding the fact that a dense cloud of business-speak works for certain sectors. But in an era where business myths are being exploded daily, for how long will obfuscation keep working?
Business-speak has had its day. Customers and investors want plain speaking as much as they want good service and a good return on their money. The language you use will make a bigger impact if it makes good sense.