English Topics MustKnow Business Buzzwords
Alisha: Hi, everybody! Welcome back!
My name is Alisha, and I’m joined again by…
Michael: Michael. Hello!
Alisha: And today, we’re going to be talking
about must-know business buzzwords.
Let’s get right into it.
Michael, what is your first buzzword that
we must know?
Michael: First thing I thought of with buzzwords
was “synergy.”
This, I think, is the archetype buzzword that
you probably shouldn’t use, in my opinion,
because it doesn’t really mean much, so it’s
a little bit ambiguous.
The rest of the buzzwords I chose, I think,
are really useful ones that you’re going to
use in everyday life, but this one, first
thing that came to mind, but it just means
kind of working together.
But it sounds much more powerful, more exciting,
right?
Alisha: Yeah, it really just means to work
together with someone else or to work together
as part of a group like, “We have good synergy.”
I think it’s a sentence that you might hear,
that it just means you work well together,
but it’s one of those words that sounds, it
sounds fancier than it really is but the true
meaning isn’t so.
Michael: And it’s overused, too, right?
Right?
Alisha: Yes.
Synergy.
Michael: What about you?
What’s your word?
Alisha: Let’s see.
What I shall choose for my first one.
You can use two words in this phrase.
I hear “going forward” or “moving forward,”
which means just the next step or what you’re
going to do in the future; your future plans
or your future ideas.
But I hear it in planning meetings, for example,
maybe like, “So, going forward, we expect
blah, blah, blah,” or “Moving forward,
this is what we’d like to do.”
Just say, “In the future.”
I don’t know why, but “going forward”
or “moving forward” sounds kind of like
a buzzword to me.
Michael: I’m pretty sure they choose these
kinds of word.
They have to choose everything they use very
carefully to give the right impression.
“Going forward” sounds like you’re making
progress even if you’re firing people and
your business is going down.
Well, you’re going forward, you’re going in
the right direction.
Maybe a lot of these buzzwords are a good
way to kind of sugarcoat bad news or to make
good news sound even better, right?
Alisha: Not all business buzzwords are bad,
I don’t think.
But anyway, going forward.
Michael: This is a good one, and you use this
in everyday life, too.
“Think outside the box.”
I think this is good.
This is, I would just say, like an idiom.
“Synergy,” I don’t feel like it qualifies
as an idiom or something.
It’s been overused to where you probably shouldn’t
use it, but “think outside the box” has
been used so much that it’s now part of our
everyday vocabulary, and it just means that
in the box means doing what you’re supposed
to do, doing what you’ve been told to do,
what’s the norm, that kind of thing.
And if you think outside the box, it’s being
creative, having a new idea, having something
that’s never been thought before, not within
your realm.
Alisha: Yeah, I think I agree.
That has usually a positive image, at least
for me.
I would say maybe the phrase is guilty of
overuse.
People will say, “Think outside the box,”
like, “Yeah, I know.”
I think, at least in American business culture,
I think maybe in my case, you’re kind of raised
expecting to think outside the box, expecting
to have new ideas, so you kind of already
feel like you’re supposed to be doing that.
But it is a good thing to keep in mind.
But I think that’s a good phrase.
You can use that in business settings or in
just regular settings, as well casual conversations.
Let’s see for my next one, I guess I will
choose this one just because I feel like it’s
overused.
This word is “robust.”
I feel like you can throw in “robust”
just about anywhere you feel like a word needs
an extra emphasis or something just needs
a little extra push like, “We have a robust
plan.”
I hear politicians use this word a lot, as
well as business people, but robust is just
an emphasizer, really.
In my mind, it has kind of—at least, for
me—the image of strength, like doing something
really, really well or it’s very thought through.
But it’s just sort of an empty word to me,
like to have a “robust plan” or we have
a “robust program” or whatever.
And shouldn’t your plan be good?
Or shouldn’t your program be good?
It’s a little bit silly to say that again,
but that’s kind of a buzzwordy buzzword thing
for me.
Do you get that nuance from the word “robust?”
It just feels sort of empty to me.
Michael: Yeah, to me…Robust…I don’t
know.
Alisha: Okay.
Maybe that’s just me then.
Michael: I was trying to think of something.
Alisha: Maybe that’s just me.
Okay, what do you have?
What’s your next one?
Michael: Let’s see.
This one is pretty good.
My next phrase is “touch base.”
This is something again you’ll hear inside
and outside of the business world, and this
just means to keep in touch, to make contact.
A lot of times, when you’re making plans and
you’re sending emails back and forth, blah,
blah, blah. you will say, “Let’s touch base.
Let’s touch base next week,” or “When
you find out, please touch base with me.”
Something like that.
Or if you’re not really sure, you can also
say “Keep in contact or keep in touch.”
Something like that.
Alisha: While we were talking about it, I
was actually trying to imagine or trying to
think about why this phrase is “touch base,”
and for a second, I thought it might be baseball-related,
but that doesn’t make sense.
It’s not like people come together in baseball
and touch the same base at any point but I
was thinking about the children’s game.
A hide-and-seek, is it?
Maybe, it’s tag, where everybody has to come
to one designated base like headquarters for
the game, and if they touch base, they’re
safe.
That’s kind of like the meeting point, so
I’m guessing that in this way, maybe “base”
is kind of the meeting point where everybody
involved in a project, everybody working together
on something can come together and talk about
something, but we use it to mean “let’s
share information.”
I like that phrase, actually.
Do you have a negative image of this phrase?
Michael: No, only the first one that I used
was negative.
I think the rest is that I try to choose ones
that were more positive, but most of them
kind of have the negative connotations, like
“robust” and “synergy,” that kind
of thing.
Alisha: “Touch base” is a good one, though.
I like “touch base.”
It’s okay.
Michael: What’s another word?
Alisha: I’ve chosen the word “leverage.”
Leverage is a very buzzy buzzwordy term.
It just means to take advantage of something.
Like, “We’re going to leverage our position
in the market to get more sales.”
It just means to take advantage of something
else.
But, when you use the word “leverage,”
as a verb in this way, it sounds so I can
leverage our relationship with our client
company or whatever.
It’s like, I don’t know, especially in a sentence
like that, saying you’re going to leverage
your relationship with somebody else, it sounds
like taking advantage of somebody.
I don’t really like that word.
Michael: It’s like kidnapping: “I have
leverage.”
There’s some sort of…
Alisha: Yeah.
I don’t really like the nuance of that phrase,
I guess.
Anything else?
Any other things you want to throw out there?
Idioms, business buzzwords?
Michael: That’s pretty much it.
Let’s touch base next video.
Alisha: Good one.
Michael: See you. Bye.
Alisha: Bye! Thanks very much!
We’ll see you again next time.