Letter to the editor: Confessions of a corporate jargon user
[Re: Worst corporate jargon of the week]
Thanks for your hilarious corporate jargon column – my colleagues and I are big fans! We find it particularly relevant (and a little triggering) because we are a sector that is truly criminal for it .
For that reason I’m not sure where to begin on suggestions for new terms for you to explore in since we have an overflowing cup to choose from – starting with the name of our sector itself – ‘impact investing’, ‘ESG’, ‘social impact investing’, ‘ethical investing’ – mostly terms that don’t mean much to anyone.
Then we get into the detail of what we actually do – ‘catalytic capital’, ‘impact venture’, ‘social outcomes contracts’, ‘impact reports’, ‘EDI’, ‘B corp’, ‘social impact’, ‘community ownership’, ‘social enterprise’, ‘Community lending’, ‘enterprise level data’ – the list goes on!
Our sister organisation Good Finance created its very own ‘Jargon Buster’ to help CEOs looking for finance navigate this tricky world: https://www.goodfinance.org.uk/jargon-buster – could be a helpful one to refer to if you’re ever searching for a new term.
As someone who has been in impact investing for several years I thought ESG was the least of our crimes – however after mentioning it at a party recently realised most people don’t know what it is. So perhaps worth considering for a future column?
Caroline Hailstone, Big Society Capital