It can be mildly entertaining and incredulously frustrating when business leaders make statements that convey nothing but BS.
Lucy Kellaway writing for the Financial Times announced the executive winners of her annual Jargon Awards.
Honourable mention goes to Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford Motor Co. for what Lucy labels as a purposeful yet content-free statement:
“Going forward, we are focused on aggressively managing short-term challenges and opportunities and we remain committed to delivering our mid-decade plan and serving a growing group of Ford customers.”
What did he say?
If I was a nervous investor before hearing that statement, I would be nervous and confused after.
The winner is this category of Sound And Fury goes to Cisco Systems Inc. CEO,John Chambers, who managed to be even emptier - and much uglier - in fewer words:
“We will accelerate our leadership across our five priorities and compete to win in the core.”
What was he smoking?
Imagine the staff searching for a straight answer about what he wants. What does he really want and how will we measure that?
Read the rest of "And the winners of 2011’s guff awards are..." by Lucy Kellaway as printed in the Globe and Mail.
Presentation Tips on Twitter Presentation Skills Club on Facebook
Executive Speech Coach,
Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives
No comments:
Post a Comment