Monetize and Dominate - two words you can hate without really trying
wow. I just got an email about the all-male roster of (another) business 2.0 conference. It's not the maleness I necessarily care about, it's the hella-boring hella-offensive PR language. Not in a political correctness kinda way, in a who writes a tagline like;
"Innovate - accelerate - dominate"
...without having to put duct tape over their mouths to keep from harfing every time they read it, kinda way. The only reason I can keep my lunch down is because I haven't eaten it yet.
I can just see the makers of this jewel of corporate ass-speak now, sitting around some faux walnut table that is far to large for the number of people using it, with some open laptops that are there more for show than any function. Some little nebbishkeit is saying" Okay guys we're going to have to really get creative here what are we trying to say with our brand?" And then guy number two who wears pink ties to prove he's not afraid of his own latent homosexuality and that he's 'plugged in' says; "We're going to innovate!" and the mean shark-like one who really *only cares* about money says "Innovate is to 2006."He says (thinking of the new car he just bought and all the payments he has to make); "We're going to accelerate!" and finally, the biggest neck of them, even though they all kind of have skinny necks, the one who was on third string football and went into the tech business because he couldn't pass is LSATS says; "We're going to dominate!"
These are the people we trust to do business?? No wonder the world is fucked eh?
And monetize don't even start me with monetize. It's a bastardization of grammar, language and common sense. It makes me think of many wonderful things such as home-made candy ,trees, and people - all magically turning into fields of waving, dirty, smelly ideologically loaded but spiritually worthless cash, in the blink of an eye. That's monetizing folks, it's black black magic and you should stay far away from it.
Project leader with a focus on youth and technology. Excellence in creative direction, content production, client service, and collaboration. Background in web development and interactive media.
Currently working FT as a project manager at zinc Roe: New media for kids
Oh yeah, and in my spare-time, I am an aspiring stand-up comedian.
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Comments
I like the part about dominating. It is so Pinky and the Brain.
I sort of imagine someone in charge pacing and saying, "we need to really capture the essence of what we are doing here, you know?" and his assistant agreeing even though he has no idea what the fuck he is talking about, going back to his desk, writing that in a fit of peevishness, not expecting it to actually be the headline for the conference.
Seriously, that is half of why I think it important to periodically blog about birth control, so that the likes of "Innovate ... Dominate" will want nothing to do with you and you can ensure you'll never be duped into walking into their terrifying cave of self-important vocabulargon.
Eventually, I'll post my own wee essay on our infatuation with business. I think it starts with "those guys look really comfortable, so they must be doing something right" and spirals downward from there. I thought Enron would clear some of this up for us (they aren't wildly successful because they are so business-like, they are criminals. Get it straight.) but it hasn't played out like that.
Maybe that's the strength of business. It doesn't have to actually succeed to appear successful.
Unlike less market-driven fields (I find myself struggling to imagine what fields i am thinking of here though...),in which a measure of fidelity to a collectively understood definition of success is expected. Ie; if you are a doctor and you can't improve peoples health you are not succeeding(yes I Know with big pharma that's a stretch), if you are an academic and no-one engages with or argues your positions then you are not a success in the eyes of the collectivity of academia.
Business manages to make up these totally improbably fictions (venture capital anyone) and turn them into facts. You can take absolute bullshit and put a patina on it in business without having to resort to even imperfect empiricism.
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