Determining The Business World's Worst Jargon

From "price point" to "empower", the worst words and phrases in business face off.

So, we're a bit late getting to this (it's called a weekend, folks, and some of us like to enjoy them), but being the diction Gestapo that we are, we'd rather be a couple days late to posting Forbes' Jargon Madness bracket than not post it at all. The bracket, much like the one you'll pointlessly fill out for the NCAA men's basketball tourney next month, pitches "32 abominable expressions" from the business world against one another in the hopes of eliminating them all from our vocabularies. The tournament will winnow the field down to one supremely horrendous phrase (you can vote on the Twitter), but right now, our money's on "core competency" because, as Forbes explains, it "refers to a firm’s or a person’s fundamental strength – even though that’s not what the word 'competent' means." Other contenders include "It is what it is," "price point," (just say "price", already!), and "corporate values," because ha, we didn't know that the relentless pursuit of profit could be considered a value. Today's showdown is between "tiger team" and "open the kimono." Now let's get out there, give it 110 per cent, reach out to our partners, and leverage some of our best practices. That's what will take us to the next level.