When the president said ‘misunderestimated’
Everybody wondered, ‘was he ever educated’
But I forgive him that, for the thing that makes me ‘EEK!’
Is the mad proliferation of Corporation Speak…
For thirteen years a desk paid my rent
As I gave a hundred and ten percent
While progress chasing, the big knobs suggested
I could perhaps be more invested
They said action that
And try blue sky thinking
Let’s square the circle
Cos floating ain’t sinking
So pick it up and run with it
But bring it to the table
And hit the ground running
Don’t smoke in the stable
Scare the ghost
Feel the commotion
Peel the onion
Boil the ocean
If you’re out of the loop
Go punch the puppy
We’ll take it on board
(While I punch the yuppie)
So here’s the game changer
Think outside the box
We need joined up thinking
Heads up, shoot the fox
It’s a no brainer, for it’s got legs
The tastiest coffee still has dregs
So find a window, bump some heads
You can’t make an omelette without cracking eggs
So let’s all sing from the same hymn sheet
For we live in a world full of corporate speak
Start from square one
Pick the low hanging fruit
Work smarter not harder
Drill down to the root
Dive deeper going forward
Get a swat team, touch base
Square the circle, value added
Reach out - save face
Game changer, deal breaker
No brainer, ad hoc
Move the dial, close the deal
Plant the seeds, walk the talk
Get the metrics, crunch the numbers
Roll the rock up the hill
Make the forecast robust
And may the variance be nil
Pump up the expenses
Relax from your flap
Keep an eye on the audits
But don’t worry about GAAP
Plan B with your A game
Ahead of the curve
Drink the Koolaid, baked in
Take a risk, get a nerve
Low ball it, blue sky it
Step off the grid
Use buy-in and win-win and
Get a core competency, kid
Manage up, manage down
Then pull up your sox
And at the end of the day...
...at the end of the day…
think outside the box !
(The writer Bourget is discussing the murder of
his friend, Gaston Calmette. Sixte is the hero of
one of Bourget's novels. Proust, another novelist,
lived in the street where the murder occurred.
Sorel was a pre-Fascist philosopher.)
3. Paul Bourget
I wonder why she'd do it? It's unclear,
at least to me, why Calmette had to die.
Unless we penetrate the sleek veneer,
we'll never know the who, the how, the why.
Like Sixte, assailed by Greslou's angry mother,
poor Calmette had to square the circle, and
make heat and ice accord with one another.
One might as well try growing rice on sand.
Perhaps the novelist may be of use.
The fellow Proust lives near, at one-three-three.
He'll know how human nature's an abstruse,
illogical, symbolic pot-pourri.
Or Sorel is the moral. We're not free.
For all our empty talk of Liberty,
our lives are ruled by (could we only see!)
the crude determinist machinery
that novels have. For such lèse-majesté
he got his just come-uppance. Ça suffit.
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