buzzwords
Buzzword of the Week: Bringing the 'Pain Point'
9:00AM 3/14/2011
In its most simple interpretation, a "pain point" is exactly what it sounds like: something so unpleasant that one is likely to try hard to avoid it or fix it. But buzzwords sometimes shift meanings, and for some boardroom jargon-slingers, pain point now means something very different.
These are the brand addicts every company dreams about -- engaged, highly loyal consumers. But one has to wonder if there are just too many istas these days. Frugalistas, recessionistas, Palinistas, urbanistas and more -- it's enough to make a buzzwordista burst.
Buzzword of the Week: Talking in Circles
12:00PM 3/01/2011
In business jargon, it seems like round has come back around. We're hearing a resurgence of the defense-minded phrase "circling the wagons," as well as the extremely slippery phrase "circle back," which changes its meaning completely depending on who's saying it.
Bucketize may not be the most odious piece of business jargon to hit the scene in the past decade, but in its short life, it has earned a barrel-full of derision for being one of the most pointless. There's just no need for another synonym for categorizing, sorting or organizing.
In the testosterone-laden enclaves of America's business class, buzzwords tend to be a bit manly.
Perhaps the best example is "tent pole," a term that refers to a company's most promising, prominent or profitable product -- except when it refers to its biggest problem.
Buzzword of the Week: Accentuate the. . .Negative?
10:00AM 2/06/2011
Conventional wisdom can't make an unprofitable earnings statement disappear, or turn a falling stock into a rising one. But there's one easy way to flip those frowns upside-down: Pair that bad news with upbeat terms and turn a recession into a period of negative growth.
Buzzwords of the Week: Rightsizing and Rightshoring
11:00AM 1/16/2011
You can't call layoffs downsizing anymore, and offshoring sounds just as bad to workers as "shipping your jobs to Asia." What to do? Come up with better buzzwords, of course. And who could object to something so "right" as rightsizing or rightshoring?
Once a clearly defined term that meant "to use force to compel or control a physical thing," drive has become one of the most insidious and overused buzzwords in the business lexicon. What's being driven now is often intangible, and the mechanics of who or what's doing the driving are a mystery. Hey, let's drive some eyeballs to this story!
Buzzword of the Week: Business Jargon Goes to the Dogs
9:40PM 12/23/2010
Canines seem to bring out the business sector's creativity, when it comes to the appropriate descriptive phrase. From the "Dogs of the Dow" to "eat your own dog food" to any business snafu derided as a "dog's dinner," U.S. finance makes no bones about lapping-up slang terms evoking Man's Best Friend.
Buzzword of the Week: Open Kimono
9:30AM 12/17/2010
Forget political correctness. Business jargon is one of the last bastions of old-fashioned, rough and tumble crudity. Little surprise, then, that boardroom buzzwords sometimes veer into racism, sexism or -- in the case of "open kimono" -- a combination of the two.
More Stories
Next Page →Market Movers
| Symbol | Last | Change / % | Volume |
|---|
Most Actives
| 8.07 | -0.11 -1.34% | 254.23M | |
| 2.19 | +0.25 +12.89% | 122.18M | |
| 18.88 | -0.26 -1.33% | 109.55M | |
| 12.44 | -0.25 -1.97% | 52.49M |
% Gainers
| 31.68 | +7.78 +32.55% | 18.42M | |
| 89.96 | +13.57 +17.76% | 13.27M | |
| 2.19 | +0.25 +12.89% | 122.18M | |
| 10.50 | +1.10 +11.70% | 3.07M |
% Losers
DailyFinance Wire
- 4 Money-Etiquette Questions Answered
- Walmart's New Health Food Push: Is It Too Hard to Swallow?
- Newlyweds, Don't Let the IRS Spoil Your Honeymoon
- Bonds Are a 'Safe' Investment: A Big Lie Gets Even Bigger
- Why Groupon Will Never Be Great Again
- Why Used Car Bargains Are Getting Harder to Find
- 5 Reasons Facebook Stock May Be a Better Buy Than You Think
Newswire
- Obama budget seeks to boost trade enforcement
- Greece's grim choice: deep budget cuts or...
- Greece's coalition party leaders back bailout...
- As Facebook IPO nears, the case for dull stocks
- Turbo-traders take Bank of America for a ride
- Staff at The Sun tabloid arrested in bribe...
- Deadline nears, Obama wants payroll tax cut...
- NY cable dispute blacks out Knicks, 4 NHL teams
- Getting paid $35,000 to short sell
- What the $26B settlement means for you
- Investing your emergency cash: Return vs. risk
- First Premier's $400-a-year credit card
- Big banks' bloated mortgage tab
- Fewer young adults hold jobs than ever before
- Government assistance expands
- Bob Rodriguez: The best advice I ever got
- 24/7 Wall St. Top Analyst Calls of the Week (AONE, ALU, AMSC, NLY, AAPL, CSCO, COH, CSTR, COP, DLR, IBM, LF, MMM, M, OPEN, POST, SIRI, SOHU, TRLG, ZOLT)
- The Force: Star Wars Franchise Worth Over $30 Billion and Growing
- 24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (COP, GILD, AMSC, MA, COH, LNKD, ATVI, CPST, GPRE, KONA, TRLG, LGF, MOVE, NBL, PCYC, ALU, FLIR, RUTH, FSLR, CIE, TBAC, RPXC, AMRS)
- Mid-day Movers (CIE, AMRS, IPSU, MOVE, LNKD)
- Petrobras Shares Volatile on $225 Billion Development Plan (PBR)
- Morning Movers (CIE, ALU, LNKD, AMRS, XIDE)
- AEP Dividend Growth Still Looks Safe Ahead (AEP)
- Arch Coal Tumbles on Earnings, Forecast (ACI, ANR, PCX, BTU, CNX)
Follow Us
