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The Encyclopedia of Business Cliches

1 - I can do better

3 - Pretty darn good

4 - Splendiferous

5 - Awesometastic

(by 29 people) Your rating:

1 - I can do better

3 - Pretty darn good

4 - Splendiferous

5 - Awesometastic

Ranked #33 in Business

16 people favorited this page

Rated G. (Control what you see)

sethgodin

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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"

23 points

^#2

"Thinking outside of the box"

22 points

^#3

Giving 110%

19 points

^#4

"Synergy"

18 points

^#5

Low-hanging fruit

17 points

^#6

Best Practices

17 points

^#7

Paradigm Shift

17 points

^#8

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

16 points

^#9

"Paradigm"

16 points

^#10

"Maximize leverage"

14 points

^#11

Push the envelope

10 points

^#12

"A leading provider of..."

10 points

^#13

Change Agent

10 points

^#14

"Maximize customer satisfaction"

9 points

^#15

Going forward

9 points

^#16

Client-Centered

9 points

^#17

seamless integration

9 points

^#18

Scalable

9 points

^#19

Web 2.0

9 points

^#20

"Value-added proposition"

8 points

^#21

"Spending more time with my family"

7 points

^#22

Best of Breed

7 points

^#23

Let's hit the ground running.

7 points

^#24

"Bring our 'A' game . . . "

7 points

^#25

The 80%-20% rule

7 points

^#26

Has legs and can go really far...

7 points

^#27

"Marketing-driven"

6 points

^#28

core competency

6 points

^#29

Brings a lot of value to the table

6 points

^#30

Actionable

6 points

^#31

Robust

6 points

^#32

Manage expectations

5 points

^#33

"Impactful"

5 points

^#34

Eco-anything

5 points

^#35

"offline"

5 points

^#36

The iPod of _insert industry_

5 points

^#37

Drop the ball

5 points

^#38

touch base

5 points

^#39

Let's take this off-line

5 points

^#40

"A Plus for all Stakeholders"

4 points

^#41

Industry Standard

4 points

^#42

scalability

4 points

^#43

net-net

4 points

^#44

win-win

4 points

^#45

Thought Leader

4 points

^#46

User-experience

4 points

^#47

Take it to the Next Level

4 points

^#48

Out-Of-Pocket

4 points

^#49

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

4 points

^#50

24/7

4 points

^#51

In Today's Highly Competitive Marketplace ...

4 points

^#52

Perfect storm

4 points

^#53

at the end of the day....

4 points

^#54

"Quite frankly..."

3 points

^#55

"Downsizing"

3 points

^#56

The bottom line

3 points

^#57

"In the ... space"

3 points

^#58

"Let's get granular"

3 points

^#59

Improve ROI

3 points

^#60

User-Focused

3 points

^#61

Strategic...

3 points

^#62

Going from good to great

3 points

^#63

It is what it is

3 points

^#64

Six Sigma

3 points

^#65

Rightsizing

3 points

^#66

Put a stake in the Ground

3 points

^#67

Team player

3 points

^#68

Multi task

3 points

^#69

Polishing a Turd

3 points

^#70

Ramp-up

3 points

^#71

proactive

3 points

^#72

Faster, Cheaper, Better

3 points

^#73

Rigor

3 points

^#74

"In terms of"

2 points

^#75

Industry Leader

2 points

^#76

From a _____ standpoint

2 points

^#77

"New and Improved"

2 points

^#78

Next Generation

2 points

^#79

1+1=3

2 points

^#80

"Today, more than ever..."

2 points

^#81

circle back

2 points

^#82

integrated approach

2 points

^#83

Do no evil

2 points

^#84

Whatever it takes

2 points

^#85

I'll sharpen the pencil

2 points

^#86

game changer

2 points

^#87

Run it up the flagpole and see who salutes

2 points

^#88

Moving up the value chain

2 points

^#89

game changing

2 points

^#90

viral

2 points

^#91

stick a fork in it.... its done

2 points

^#92

The customer is always right

2 points

^#93

step up to the plate

2 points

^#94

under the radar

2 points

^#95

Upsell

2 points

^#96

let's be carbon neutral

2 points

^#97

For all your _____ needs.

2 points

^#98

Work Life Balance

2 points

^#99

"Robust and customer-focused"

1 point

^#100

"We'll loop you in..."

1 point

^#101

Benchmark

1 point

^#102

Gotta raise the bar

1 point

^#103

Plug-and-Play

1 point

^#104

precision engineered

1 point

^#105

customizable

1 point

^#106

intelligent engineering

1 point

^#107

sustainability

1 point

^#108

Disintermediation

1 point

^#109

Re-invented

1 point

^#110

purple cow

1 point

^#111

Pull-through Sales

1 point

^#112

Tearing down the silos...

1 point

^#113

"if we have the courage of our convictions"

1 point

^#114

Robustize

1 point

^#115

"Honestly..."

1 point

^#116

"organic" growth

1 point

^#117

Cost center

1 point

^#118

Monetize

1 point

^#119

Teamwork

1 point

^#120

Quick Wins

1 point

^#121

Shit Happens

1 point

^#122

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

1 point

^#123

"Custom Engineered Solutions"

1 point

^#124

Noise in The System

1 point

^#125

Ideation

1 point

^#126

Circle back around

1 point

^#127

"Boots on the ground"

1 point

^#128

Data driven

1 point

^#129

Dynamic

1 point

^#130

Crossing the Chasm

1 point

^#131

"Architect" used as a verb

1 point

^#132

let's be proactive here people

1 point

^#133

eat our own dog food

1 point

^#134

the scenery only changes for the lead dog

1 point

^#135

Loss Leader

1 point

^#136

solutions

1 point

^#137

showstopper

1 point

^#138

the way forward

1 point

^#139

contemporize the portfolio

1 point

^#140

_______ manifesto

1 point

^#141

The Elephant in the room (or the corner)

1 point

^#142

In the trenches with you...

1 point

^#143

It is what it is

1 point

^#144

Cast a wider net

1 point

^#145

Our people are our best asset

1 point

^#146

Visionary (job title)

1 point

^#147

Our go-to-market strategy

1 point

^#148

Directionally Correct

1 point

^#149

Surface key learnings

1 point

^#150

Lead the charge

1 point

^#151

Shared Vision

1 point

^#152

Reach out

1 point

^#153

I did it with the Boss at the Office Party

1 point

^#154

Never trust a Salesman

1 point

^#155

We'll make sure to revisit this

1 point

^#156

"Quality is job one"

0 points

^#157

high performance

0 points

^#158

Re-organization

0 points

^#159

Certified...

0 points

^#160

create something remarkable

0 points

^#161

my success is your success

0 points

^#162

Skate to where the puck is going

0 points

^#163

This thing's going to happen

0 points

^#164

I appreciate your candor...

0 points

^#165

"Someone (who is) plug and play"

0 points

^#166

Like minded

0 points

^#167

My way or the highway

0 points

^#168

Pick it up and sit on it

0 points

^#169

On-Ramp

0 points

^#170

Off- Ramp

0 points

^#171

Real Time Meeting

0 points

^#172

I need to get flat with you

0 points

^#173

business athlete

0 points

^#174