There’s English, Spanish, German, French, Arabic, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese… and so many more languages…
…and one particularly unique one: the language of Business.
A company announcing significant layoffs across its workforce said, recently, the layoffs would ‘release untapped potential across the company’s brands.’
That’s an interesting way of putting it.
In the language of Business, personnel aren’t getting fired or terminated; it’s merely ‘staff reductions,’ or ‘redeployments,’ that are underway.
Like top 10 songs on music charts, certain words become top 10 favorites. Like the rather popular word… ‘stakeholders,’ for example.
Stakeholders tend to have some interest or some concern in something, that, as is often said in business, is on the table.
‘On the table’ might be among the top favorites, too, because it can be another way of implying ‘maybe… maybe not.’ When businesses need a little wiggle room, sometimes such words can provide it.
Companies often are pledging their devotion to stakeholders, when, in one way and another, stakeholders might hold the key to what business firms dearly want to carry out.
There’s so much to it, the language of Business. It can be action-oriented, or the opposite… soothing and lulling. Especially when words like ‘chief’ or ‘key’ come into play, when they precede whatever is being emphasized in a company’s communication.
Something ‘key’ to a company’s vision, or its ‘chief’ reason for assessing, or reassessing, something… might be seen as action-oriented, or soothing, depending upon circumstances. Like when business firms seem to be shouting from rooftops… ‘We’re on this’… ‘We’re fully addressing (whatever some situation, or potential problem, might be)’… ‘We’ll be providing further updates, as necessary…’
Such shades of meaning!
It’s constantly evolving, the language of Business, and that’s why it’s so fascinating — and, sometimes, amusing.
Language scholars could devote considerable effort, energy and time to interpreting the precise meaning of the words… ‘releasing untapped potential across brands.’… that inspired this article.
If I still happened to be in the PR profession, words like those could very well be emanating from my computer keyboard.
Devising those words, and other go-to favorites, might have required a series of meetings, hashing things out virtually, or sitting around a conference room table at the office. Or maybe, instead, just someone coming up with something, in the middle of a family dinner, surreptitiously typing words on a smart phone…
Imagine… between lasagna, salad, apple cobbler and coffee, someone releasing their own untapped potential, by jotting notes on a phone, and coming up with those very words about layoffs across a company’s workforce… releasing untapped potential across the company’s brands.