Ban All Blather

Submitted by Bob Buday on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 06:25

Nice to see we’re not the only ones who complain about indecipherable business communications.

Check out this Oct. 29 column by New York Times media critic David Carr about a CEO’s internal memo at magazine magnate Conde Nast (Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, etc.). Looks like employees are having a hard time understanding their boss’s lingo (“consumer-centric business model,” “holistic brand management approach” and “multi-platform, integrated sales and marketing organization”). Sounds like a consulting firm ghostwrote the memo.

Executives aren’t impressed by breakthrough ideas communicated incoherently for a good reason: They need to understand the ideas first in order to recognize their novelty. Thought leaders use simple and familiar language to explain big, complex concepts.

If this is the case, why is so much content produced by professional and other B2B firms so indecipherable? Anyone have a theory? Let’s hear it.

Bob Buday's blog

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Why This Blog?

Bob Buday We all know big ideas can change the world. Business is no exception: A number of big, beneficial management ideas have fundamentally altered the way business is conducted and improved society. And we need many more to come.

This blog is for anyone who wants to create or market big management ideas, whether you are an expert yourself or a marketer charged with bringing the ideas of your firm's experts to market.

I have helped consultants and other professionals develop and market their ideas since 1987. At the beginning of my career in "thought leadership marketing" (although we didn't have a term for it at the time), I had the extremely fortunate opportunity to work at the consulting firm that created the biggest consulting concept of the 1990s with the late Michael Hammer: business reengineering. (More on my career here.)

Since then, my firm has helped dozens of experts translate their ideas into Harvard Business Review and Sloan Management Review articles, books, research studies, white papers, and opinion articles in popular publications (e.g., Financial Times, Business Week, and Forbes).

I welcome your ideas on these blog posts so please feel free to comment on them. Through the exchange of ideas, perhaps we can raise the thinking on "thought leadership marketing" to another level.

Bob Buday's Blog.

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