This week I met up with an experienced entrepreneur and business man, a fellow who had started his own company some years ago and was clearly successful and making money; nothing to do with law. We were talking about business generally and got into profit ratios, business in hand (we would call it WIP) and so on.All was fine until I said: ‘Well, with the number of staff you have working for you do you set objectives?’ ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘So what are your KPIs?’ I replied.

To my surprise this alert but obviously startled man responded: ‘What are they?’‘Why, key performance indicators,’ said I. Then we went on to discuss management jargon and computer-speak.

‘There’s too much of it!’ my friend exploded, ‘all I want to do is get on with what I know’.

Is it inevitable that every profession or trade has its own jargon. But have we all got into a routine that dictates that we try to blind others by the use of acronyms or words which are essentially made up, just to show how competent we are?

I have noted before that in the legal profession there is some resistance to professional management in general, though this is diminishing. Does that resistance stem in part from a dislike of ‘management speak’? Which sounds like it’s OK to use your own jargon while not accepting that of others…