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The Encyclopedia of Business Cliches

1 - I can do better

3 - Pretty darn good

4 - Splendiferous

5 - Awesometastic

(by 34 people) Your rating:

1 - I can do better

3 - Pretty darn good

4 - Splendiferous

5 - Awesometastic

Ranked #32 in Business, #503 overall

Donates to Squidoo Charity Fund

Rated G. (Control what you see)

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

"win-win situation"

24 points

^#2

"Thinking outside of the box"

23 points

^#3

Low-hanging fruit

20 points

^#4

Giving 110%

19 points

^#5

"Synergy"

18 points

^#6

Paradigm Shift

18 points

^#7

Best Practices

17 points

^#8

"Paradigm"

17 points

^#9

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

16 points

^#10

"Maximize leverage"

14 points

^#11

"A leading provider of..."

11 points

^#12

Push the envelope

10 points

^#13

Web 2.0

10 points

^#14

Change Agent

10 points

^#15

"Maximize customer satisfaction"

9 points

^#16

"Value-added proposition"

9 points

^#17

Going forward

9 points

^#18

Client-Centered

9 points

^#19

seamless integration

9 points

^#20

Scalable

9 points

^#21

Best of Breed

9 points

^#22

core competency

8 points

^#23

The 80%-20% rule

8 points

^#24

"Spending more time with my family"

7 points

^#25

Robust

7 points

^#26

Drop the ball

7 points

^#27

Let's hit the ground running.

7 points

^#28

"Bring our 'A' game . . . "

7 points

^#29

Let's take this off-line

7 points

^#30

Has legs and can go really far...

7 points

^#31

"Marketing-driven"

6 points

^#32

Brings a lot of value to the table

6 points

^#33

"offline"

6 points

^#34

Actionable

6 points

^#35

Take it to the Next Level

6 points

^#36

Manage expectations

5 points

^#37

"Impactful"

5 points

^#38

Eco-anything

5 points

^#39

win-win

5 points

^#40

It is what it is

5 points

^#41

The iPod of _insert industry_

5 points

^#42

In Today's Highly Competitive Marketplace ...

5 points

^#43

touch base

5 points

^#44

at the end of the day....

5 points

^#45

The bottom line

4 points

^#46

"A Plus for all Stakeholders"

4 points

^#47

"Let's get granular"

4 points

^#48

Industry Standard

4 points

^#49

Strategic...

4 points

^#50

scalability

4 points

^#51

net-net

4 points

^#52

Going from good to great

4 points

^#53

Thought Leader

4 points

^#54

User-experience

4 points

^#55

Six Sigma

4 points

^#56

Out-Of-Pocket

4 points

^#57

Team player

4 points

^#58

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

4 points

^#59

24/7

4 points

^#60

Perfect storm

4 points

^#61

"Quite frankly..."

3 points

^#62

"Downsizing"

3 points

^#63

"In the ... space"

3 points

^#64

Improve ROI

3 points

^#65

User-Focused

3 points

^#66

From a _____ standpoint

3 points

^#67

"New and Improved"

3 points

^#68

Rightsizing

3 points

^#69

Put a stake in the Ground

3 points

^#70

Do no evil

3 points

^#71

Multi task

3 points

^#72

Run it up the flagpole and see who salutes

3 points

^#73

stick a fork in it.... its done

3 points

^#74

The customer is always right

3 points

^#75

Polishing a Turd

3 points

^#76

Ramp-up

3 points

^#77

eat our own dog food

3 points

^#78

proactive

3 points

^#79

Faster, Cheaper, Better

3 points

^#80

Rigor

3 points

^#81

Now More Than Ever

3 points

^#82

"In terms of"

2 points

^#83

Industry Leader

2 points

^#84

Plug-and-Play

2 points

^#85

Next Generation

2 points

^#86

1+1=3

2 points

^#87

"Today, more than ever..."

2 points

^#88

circle back

2 points

^#89

integrated approach

2 points

^#90

Teamwork

2 points

^#91

Whatever it takes

2 points

^#92

I'll sharpen the pencil

2 points

^#93

game changer

2 points

^#94

Moving up the value chain

2 points

^#95

game changing

2 points

^#96

viral

2 points

^#97

"Boots on the ground"

2 points

^#98

Good to go

2 points

^#99

the scenery only changes for the lead dog

2 points

^#100

Loss Leader

2 points

^#101

step up to the plate

2 points

^#102

under the radar

2 points

^#103

Upsell

2 points

^#104

The Elephant in the room (or the corner)

2 points

^#105

It is what it is

2 points

^#106

let's be carbon neutral

2 points

^#107

Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater

2 points

^#108

For all your _____ needs.

2 points

^#109

Work Life Balance

2 points

^#110

We'll make sure to revisit this

2 points

^#111

"Robust and customer-focused"

1 point

^#112

"We'll loop you in..."

1 point

^#113

Benchmark

1 point

^#114

Gotta raise the bar

1 point

^#115

precision engineered

1 point

^#116

customizable

1 point

^#117

intelligent engineering

1 point

^#118

sustainability

1 point

^#119

Disintermediation

1 point

^#120

Re-invented

1 point

^#121

purple cow

1 point

^#122

my success is your success

1 point

^#123

Pull-through Sales

1 point

^#124

Tearing down the silos...

1 point

^#125

"if we have the courage of our convictions"

1 point

^#126

Robustize

1 point

^#127

This thing's going to happen

1 point

^#128

"Honestly..."

1 point

^#129

"organic" growth

1 point

^#130

Cost center

1 point

^#131

Monetize

1 point

^#132

Quick Wins

1 point

^#133

My way or the highway

1 point

^#134

I'd like to come by and check your temperature.

1 point

^#135

"Custom Engineered Solutions"

1 point

^#136

Noise in The System

1 point

^#137

Ideation

1 point

^#138

Circle back around

1 point

^#139

Data driven

1 point

^#140

Dynamic

1 point

^#141

Crossing the Chasm

1 point

^#142

"Architect" used as a verb

1 point

^#143

let's be proactive here people

1 point

^#144

solutions

1 point

^#145

showstopper

1 point

^#146

the way forward

1 point

^#147

contemporize the portfolio

1 point

^#148

_______ manifesto

1 point

^#149

In the trenches with you...

1 point

^#150

Do you have any bandwidth?

1 point

^#151

Cast a wider net

1 point

^#152

Our people are our best asset

1 point

^#153

Visionary (job title)

1 point

^#154

Our go-to-market strategy

1 point

^#155

Directionally Correct

1 point

^#156

Surface key learnings

1 point

^#157

Lead the charge

1 point

^#158

Shared Vision

1 point

^#159

Reach out

1 point

^#160

take one for the team

1 point

^#161

Just my 2 cents

1 point

^#162

I did it with the Boss at the Office Party

1 point

^#163

Never trust a Salesman

1 point

^#164

Like facebook but for _____

1 point

^#165

Healthy

1 point

^#166

We Have No Choice...

1 point

^#167

Everyone Is Doing It

1 point

^#168

I Heard It Thru The Grapevine...

1 point

^#169

Solution

1 point

^#170

The take-aways

1 point

^#171

"Quality is job one"

0 points

^#172

high performance

0 points

^#173

Re-organization

0 points

^#174

Certified...

0 points

^#175

create something remarkable

0 points

^#176

Skate to where the puck is going

0 points

^#177