Link Collections: The Encyclopedia of Business Cliches

Sunday, February 13, 2011

The Encyclopedia of Business Cliches

It's about clarity

I remember learning new words and phrases by the barrelful in business school. As a business-book writer, I'm exposed to them all the time. Many of them are actually quite useful, because they give you precise words to describe things that would be difficult to communicate otherwise. For example, telling someone that a particular hedge fund is "highly leveraged" is a lot easier than saying, "They've borrowed a lot of money in order to speculate and multiply their positive returns using other people's money."

On the other hand, the vast majority of buzzwords exist for one reason: to hide. By obfuscating, lying, confusing or just plain avoiding the issue, business people can avoid communicating. Do you have the guts to stop using cliches?

Here's my top ten. Add your own...

1

"Thinking outside of the box"

62 points

2

"win-win situation"

58 points

3

Giving 110%

40 points

4

Best Practices

36 points

5

"Synergy"

35 points

6

Paradigm Shift

34 points

7

"At the end of the day,..."

30 points

8

Low-hanging fruit

30 points

9

Going forward

28 points

10

Push the envelope

26 points

11

Web 2.0

26 points

12

The 80%-20% rule

23 points

13

"Value-added proposition"

22 points

14

"Paradigm"

22 points

15

"Maximize customer satisfaction"

20 points

16

Take it to the Next Level

19 points

17

core competency

18 points

18

Let's take this off-line

18 points

19

"A leading provider of..."

17 points

20

Drop the ball

17 points

21

"Spending more time with my family"

16 points

22

Best of Breed

16 points

23

"Bring our 'A' game . . . "

15 points

24

seamless integration

14 points

25

Scalable

14 points

26

at the end of the day....

14 points

27

"Maximize leverage"

13 points

28

Eco-anything

13 points

29

Brings a lot of value to the table

13 points

30

Robust

13 points

31

Let's hit the ground running.

13 points

32

24/7

13 points

33

Client-Centered

12 points

34

It is what it is

12 points

35

touch base

12 points

36

Drinking Kool-Aid

12 points

37

Change Agent

11 points

38

Multi task

11 points

39

In Today's Highly Competitive Marketplace ...

11 points

40

The bottom line

10 points

41

Manage expectations

10 points

42

"offline"

10 points

43

Actionable

10 points

44

"Impactful"

9 points

45

Strategic...

9 points

46

win-win

9 points

47

let's be proactive here people

9 points

48

ballpark figure

9 points

49

800 pound gorilla

9 points

50

"Marketing-driven"

7 points

51

Improve ROI

7 points

52

Next Generation

7 points

53

The iPod of _insert industry_

7 points

54

Six Sigma

7 points

55

circle back

7 points

56

Out-Of-Pocket

7 points

57

proactive

7 points

58

It is what it is

7 points

59

Putting lipsitick on a pig

7 points

60

scalability

6 points

61

Going from good to great

6 points

62

Teamwork

6 points

63

viral

6 points

64

Has legs and can go really far...

6 points

65

I don't have the bandwidth

6 points

66

"Let's get granular"

5 points

67

Rightsizing

5 points

68

"Today, more than ever..."

5 points

69

Put a stake in the Ground

5 points

70

Focused on ... (i.e. results)

5 points

71

The customer is always right

5 points

72

"Architect" used as a verb

5 points

73

step up to the plate

5 points

74

Faster, Cheaper, Better

5 points

75

Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater

5 points

76

Now More Than Ever

5 points

77

Too many chiefs and not enough Indians

5 points

78

"Downsizing"

4 points

79

Industry Standard

4 points

80

Gotta raise the bar

4 points

81

net-net

4 points

82

User-experience

4 points

83

integrated approach

4 points

84

Do no evil

4 points

85

game changer

4 points

86

Perfect storm

4 points

87

The Elephant in the room (or the corner)

4 points

88

Work Life Balance

4 points

89

Resonate

4 points

90

Transparency

4 points

91

"A Plus for all Stakeholders"

3 points

92

"In the ... space"

3 points

93

Benchmark

3 points

94

User-Focused

3 points

95

Industry Leader

3 points

96

From a _____ standpoint

3 points

97

"New and Improved"

3 points

98

Thought Leader

3 points

99

Team player

3 points

100

Run it up the flagpole and see who salutes

3 points

101

Moving up the value chain

3 points

102

"Boots on the ground"

3 points

103

Polishing a Turd

3 points

104

the scenery only changes for the lead dog

3 points

105

________ on steroids

3 points

106

Upsell

3 points

107

Cast a wider net

3 points

108

Rubber hits the road

3 points

109

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