The FT guff awards 9, January 2012
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Random.Tags: FT Guff awards
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From the Financial Times.
The 2011 winners…
Sound and Fury Cup – ‘awarded each year to the chief executive who makes a public pronouncement signifying nothing.’
The runaway winner is Cisco’s John Chambers…”We will accelerate our leadership across our five priorities and compete to win in the core.”
Worst euphemism for firing people.
This goes to Nokia, which last year announced that 17,000 people were getting the chop or, as it put it, that its operations were being “managed for value”.
Most spurious use of percentages over 100 per cent.
Devin Wenig of Ebay… He said he was a mere “1,000 per cent committed” to his new job but added an explanation that craftily kept up the mathematical theme. “At this point in my career, a big platform, big brand, and global impact were all part of what I was solving for in prioritising opportunities.”
Worst job title.
Dirk Beeuwsaert is GDF Suez’s Executive Vice-President in charge of the Energy International Business line.
The most heroic attempt by a management consultant to overcomplicate matters.
A consultant at McKinsey who said: “The assessment was based on international methodology and on ground-truthing.”
Worst email sign-off
Shortlist of five: Toodle pip; All heart; Smiles; To your success; and (following a threatening message) Thanks and Bless. All should have prizes, but as I can only give one, I’m choosing “Smiles”, which is both bogus and contains a baffling use of the plural. How many mouths does the sender have?
2011 Golden Flannel Award for utter gibberish from a company that should know better.
The winner is Manpower Group, for describing itself thus: “Our $22 billion company creates unique time to value through a comprehensive suite of innovative solutions that help clients win in the Human Age.” Which makes me nostalgic for the Jurassic Age because I don’t think dinosaurs had any truck with innovative suites at all.
Hat tip: @rupertbu
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