Harvard Business Review Discovers Buzzwords

Guest blogger Dan Pallotta writing for HBR’s Blog Network has a post on the meaninglessness of most business conversations. Dan founded Pallotta TeamWorks, which runs charitable events to raise money for AIDs and breast cancer research. In his post I Don’t Understand What Anyone is Saying Anymore, he covers the standard litany of biz-speak sins: undecipherable acronyms, vague abstractions, trite expressions, and permutations of the aforementioned.

I applaud Pallotta for pointing out that buzzwords and some form of business Esperanto are still plaguing our communications. I was especially moved to nausea by a sign he observed in the lobby of a Hilton that read, “Our goal is to exceed customer expectations.” Someone should call in a modern day Don Draper to get the Hilton account.

It can sometimes be helpful and edifying to trace the origins of words. For example, buzzwords. In this case, I hit pay dirt. According to my Dictionary of American Slang (HarperPerennial), the word was minted in the 1940s by students at … Harvard Business School.

A buzzword was “used to describe the key to any course or situation.” The definition notes that buzz was likely a shortening of the word business.