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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoPlainText>John Bailey sez: "So much of the business of business in the late capitalist era seems to involve dressing 'fraudulent exploitation' in an ever-changing array of linguistic petticoats."<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'>Since the early 1980s, for my sins, I've written speeches, video and multimedia scripts, etc. for senior executives at about thirty of the Fortune 500. Many were for internal meetings and presentations to business partners rather than directed to customers or the public. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'>After a while I could tell from the buzzwords and buzzphrases in vogue which <a href="http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?STORE=book&FMT=physical&CAT=967828&SRT=SA">business best-seller</a> (or which evangelist team from McKinsey, Bain, Boston, etc.) had captivated the C-suite most recently. These serve much the same function for corporations that self-help books and motivational seminars do for individuals: this year I really *<b>am</b>* going to lose weight, stand up to my in-laws, stop gobbling Vicodin, whatever. Trust me: the “linguistic petticoats” (stolen, thanks) are as important in self-deception as in fraudulent exploitation of outsiders.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'>(Whaddya mean that’s not much comfort..?)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>