I was on a podcast the other day when the interviewer challenged my belief that profit is the number one goal of every for-profit business. I was astounded that anyone could believe the number one goal is anything else. Obviously, this guy never ran a P&L. And if he did, if he was chasing around everything but profit, he didn’t run it very long.
And then it hit me. This guy was a consultant disguised as a podcaster. My first clue was when he started throwing high-minded consultant speak at me.
He didn’t like it much when I told him to stop throwing corporate gobbledygook around. Not surprisingly, he subsequently decided not to air the podcast.
But he did remind me of something that is wrong with many companies. That is the delusion that fancy corporate phrases will drive corporate performance. Some CEO’s think if they wrap themselves in the trendiest buzzwords people below will catch on and somehow magically perform better. They won’t. In fact, relying on trendy buzzwords can wreck a business. Here are the top 5: