Resource
The A-Z of Consulting Bullshit
Here's a helpful working dictionary of the words consultancies like to use, we are not entirely innocent ;)
A
Action items
Actions. Items don't do anything until someone moves them.
At scale
Big. Often added after a description to make the description sound more impressive. If a project is genuinely operating at scale, the numbers usually carry the point without the phrase.
B
Bandwidth
Capacity. Time. Mental room. Used most when there is least of it.
Best-in-class
Best of the things the speaker chose to compare it to. Class is rarely defined, which makes the claim hard to argue with and easy to ignore.
Best practice
What others have done, plus the assumption it worked. Useful as a starting point. Less useful as a finishing one.
Buy-in
Agreement. Usually wanted from the people whose names sit on the slide before the work starts, and whose names quietly come off if the work stalls.
C
Cutting-edge
Recent. Often used to describe things that are six months old in a fast-moving field, or six years old in a slow one.
D
Deep dive
A close look at something. Usually a meeting, occasionally a workshop, rarely actually deep.
Deliverables
Things that get delivered. Usually documents. Sometimes software. Sometimes both, with no clarity on which is the point.
Disrupt
Compete with the incumbents in a way they didn't expect. Now used most often by people doing exactly what the incumbents do, slightly cheaper.
E
Ecosystem
A group of products, partners or services that work together. The word has now stretched far enough that a kettle, a national health service and a podcast network can all be called ecosystems. Specificity is usually more useful.
Empower
Give the means to do something. Used so often that 'enable' would feel sharper, and 'let' would feel sharper still.
F
Frictionless
Without difficulty. Usually applied to a checkout. Customers notice friction quickly, but they also notice when a process has had every check stripped out in pursuit of the word.
Future-proof
Designed to last. Time tends to disagree.
G
Game-changer
Significant. Most game-changers turn out to be incremental improvements with a press release attached.
H
Harness
Use. Almost always means use, sometimes with a confidence the speaker doesn't actually have.
Holistic
Considering the whole. A useful idea worn out by overuse. If a piece of work is genuinely holistic, the brief usually shows it without the word being there.
I
Ideate
Think of ideas. The shorter version is also the work.
J
Journey
What a customer does, in order, when they buy something or use a service. Genuinely useful as a concept. Less useful when every interaction is also called a journey.
K
KPI
A number used to track progress. Useful when chosen carefully. Distracting when there are more than seven.
L
Leverage
Use. Almost always means use. The longer word makes the sentence sound like a banking pitch without making it any more accurate.
Low-hanging fruit
Easy work. Sometimes also the work no one had wanted to do because it was boring rather than easy.
M
Mindshare
Attention. Usually wanted by brands that don't have much of it.
Mission-critical
Important. The full phrase is often a sign that 'important' on its own wouldn't have carried the slide.
Move the needle
Make a noticeable difference. The needle is usually on a dashboard that no one has explained the scale of.
N
North Star
Goal. The metaphor implies one fixed point of reference, which is rarely how strategies actually work in practice.
O
Onboarding
Getting someone started. Used for new staff, new customers, and new partners. The shared word obscures three quite different jobs.
Optimise
Make better. Used most often when 'fix' or 'finish' would have been more accurate.
P
Pivot
Change direction. Now stretched far enough that a small adjustment to a launch plan and a wholesale business rewrite get the same word.
Q
Quick win
A small change with a visible effect. Most plans need at least one. Most plans contain at least seven, which is the problem.
R
Reach out
Contact. Get in touch. Phone, email, message. All of these are shorter.
Roadmap
A plan with dates. Most roadmaps are plans without dates.
Robust
Sturdy. Reliable. In software it usually means a system has been tested. In strategy it usually means the strategist would prefer not to be asked too many questions about it.
S
Seamless
Without obvious joins. Almost always written for the benefit of the brochure rather than the user, who tends to notice the joins immediately.
Stakeholders
People who care about the outcome. Useful as shorthand. Less useful when 'who exactly?' produces eight job titles and no names.
Streamline
Cut. Almost always means cut. Sometimes also means cut while making the cuts sound like a strategy.
Synergy
Two things working together, sold as if neither would work alone. When a deck uses the word more than once, the deal is usually less coherent than the slide suggests.
T
Touchpoint
A place where a customer encounters a brand. Now broad enough to include a receipt, a podcast advert and a complaint letter. Specificity helps.
Transformation
A significant change. Often used to make a change sound bigger than it is. The people actually running the change tend to describe it in plainer language.
U
Unlock potential
Find out what something can do. Unlocking implies a key. There isn't one.
V
Value-add
Useful. The hyphen makes the word longer without making the meaning clearer.
W
World-class
Good. Sometimes very good. Often a word that means a deck reviewer felt 'good' on its own was insufficiently striking.
X
X-functional (cross-functional)
A team made of people from different departments. The hyphenated abbreviation often does the work the team should have been doing.
Y
Yield
Result. In financial language it means return. In strategy language it usually means 'something we hope happens'.
Z
Zero-based
A planning or budgeting approach that starts from nothing rather than from last year's numbers. Worth knowing. Frequently misapplied to mean any kind of restart.
Other A-Zs from Human Kind: Artificial Intelligence ยท Sustainability.
Plainer is harder than it looks.
If a brief you're working on reads more like this page than you'd like, we can probably help.