Without “The Apprentice”, there’s far less in the way of business telly around these days. Which is why it’s nice to see a brief slice of entrepreneurship TV on Wednesday, on BBC2. It’s going to be a look at the inner workings of the John Lewis Partnership; a rather marvellous institution amongst retailers because of its unique company structure in which all employees are partners in the company.
I don’t know this because I’m an avid reader of the TV Times schedules, but because I happened to catch a review of the programme on the radio.
Parts of the review made my blood boil.
One of the key complaints from the reviewers was that during the progress of this fly-on-the-wall documentary, staff used jargon “which would sound entirely plausible coming from the mouth of David Brent”; Ricky Gervais’ managerial parody in “The Office”.
This sort of thing always annoys me. Of course business environments have their own jargon. They are sophisticated organisations in which thousands of people and processes must interact with one another. This will breed its own vocabulary.
You don’t see patients in waiting rooms saying to one another “I do wish my doctor wouldn’t talk about my tibia and fibula – after all it’s just my leg”. Everyone from lawyers to vicars has a well-developed and nuanced vocabulary which reflects what they do. So why is business different?
Well, partly it’s because (as “The Office” well shows), businesspeople are capable of alarming self parody. The 1980s brought us the yuppie with his bulging red braces. The 1990s gave us the big-tie-wearing estate agent. The noughties gave us Enron, Northern Rock and many more tycoons hung on their own hubris. The internet boom gave us dotcom millionaire skater-boys who’d never worn a tie; and today of course, we have “The Bankers”. All of these caricatures live in their own worlds where buzzwords are ten-a-penny.
And unlike the tibia and fibula, which refer to things which are all too real; some business buzzwords exist to cover up anything from woeful inadequacy to sheer snake-oil hokum. If you know what “Imagineering” is, please tell me; because I haven’t got a clue.
I’ve grumbled in this blog sometimes about the way business is so often portrayed as “dirty”; or socially irresponsible. I deeply disagree- I am utterly committed to helping the world around me, and I think businesses are the most efficient engines which allow individuals to achieve change in the world around them.
There’s good business and bad business, just as there are good people and bad people. The comedy of “The Office” is there to prick the pride and conscience of managers everywhere. And I know I’m not alone when I say I’ve sat in meetings and thought to myself… “what on earth is this person on about?”. But that doesn’t mean business is fundamentally bad (and I suspect that as a company the John Lewis Partnership is more ethical than most). The reviewer’s parody was a cheap shot; part of the “all businesses are bad” brigade. It’s the duty of every small business; the ones that put dinners on tables for over 90% of the population, to keep reminding those of an overly sanctimonious disposition that there’s nothing wrong with earning a crust by honest means- even if we do invent words along the way.
Filed under: marketing, retail, sales | Tagged: john lewis, business, entrepreneurship, start a business, run a business, entrepreneur, jargon, buzzwords, buzzword bingo, john lewis partnership, inside john lewis, bbc2, the office, ricky gervais, yuppie, imagineering
