Buzzwords: Boon or Bane?

Madi

Connects to a moment in time. Right.

Natan

Yeah. And, um, packages, some ideas and some catchy phrase that could mean more, could mean less. That becomes useful. And then like the way information travels nowadays, we just get stuck with it. For example, IoT that came from MIT, I believe it was like the original RFID research group, and I guess when the internet was created, people thought about the internet as fundamentally for people and kind of tied to PCs or larger computers of all sorts, servers and whatnot.

Madi

Okay.

Natan

And I guess it, back then, 20 something years ago, it made sense to have an internet of things. It just doesn't make sense. And when you think about it from a perspective of 20 years, what is Internet of things versus Internet of people or the internet of the dogs or the internet of whatever. It's just, there's one internet.

Madi

So maybe I could take us full circle. So the academic, and I say academic, but I mean the dictionary.com definition of a buzzword is a word or phrase, often an item of jargon that is fashionable at a particular time or in a particular context. And I think your, uh, IoT example is really great to show when buzzwords fail, like a 20 year old word shouldn't be a buzzword anymore. Right. Like that's not a period in time that's become outdated language that is less meaningful.

Natan

Yeah.

Madi

But it seems like there could be timely uses of buzzwords.

Natan

Yeah.

Madi

Especially with new and like evolving concepts where they're super useful to have, even if they mean less while they're evolving.

Natan

Yeah, and while it sounds like a rant on IoT, it's very clear why they said internet of things back then, and it really comes from there were smaller, constricted, uh, devices, you know, with less CPU and less memory and no screen that needs to move data from place to place. And they were like, okay. It's a thing.

Madi

Yeah.

Natan

Let's give some trivial examples that everybody knows and loves it. It could be your refrigerator. Guess what? We have connected refrigerators. Now. It could be your, uh, thermostat. Got that new thing. Yeah, it's a thing. It could be your machine on a shop floor. The predecessor to that, I think it was like M2M, so it was like, it's a special buzzword with a number, you know, Machine to Machine connectivity.

Madi

Mm-hmm.

Natan

And, uh, okay, so all this stuff comes and goes and, but I guess if you think about it back then, that was like, pretty useful description of what it is cause like only computers, were talking to the internet.

Madi

And I think that that is when buzzwords are useful, right? Like they describe a new concept and kind of give you some grounding. And so I can think of a few if we're just thinking of like fresh stuff that comes in, another area out that's outside of it being outdated, where I think buzzwords really fail people is when everyone wants to attach to that buzzword and it starts to mean nothing. Like I think AI means nothing. Blockchain starts to mean nothing. Remember like Web 3.0, it's like not that old, but also it's old because of the buzzword.

Natan

Big data!

Madi

Big data is a good one. Like if everything attaches to the buzzword, that's where I think you get like that strong reaction where it doesn't mean anything anymore. Yeah, and I think. In our space right now, we're starting to see that hit with Industry 4.0, which is why I think a lot of people are trying to abandon Industry 4.0 is cause it doesn't mean what they want it to mean anymore.

Natan

Yeah. And I think time plays into it, so I think opinions may vary, but I think Industry 4.0 is about 10 years old or so.

Madi

Mm-hmm.

Natan

When we go to the 2.0, 3.0, whatever, usually it's tied to like some fundamental shift in the technology and how people kind of adopt it and make products and use it. And so the, the canonical, I guess it's between Web 1.0.

Madi

Mm-hmm.

Natan

That was just, okay, there is a browser and a page and it's great. It's not a terminal. And then you have dynamic webpages and you go to 2.0 and so on and so forth.

Madi

Mm-hmm.

Natan

And, in Industry 4.0. I just think that first it's been a long time.

Madi

Yes.

Natan

And two, not a lot happened. So a bunch happened, but at the same time, not a lot happened. So it's not like the world have changed through amazing revolution that, you know, we've hit sort of a plateau. And we're done. People are like-

Madi

I think that's where the nuance is what you're talking about.

Natan

Yeah.

Madi

Is where like if you were writing a history book, like this would not even be a full paragraph. Right? Because it's so short. What could feel like a lot of time for us is like, yeah, we still haven't reached the next break.

Natan

Yeah.

Madi

But when people engage with a topic, 10 years is actually a long time. Like, there's more nuance in ways that that technology has evolved to people. And so using the same word of a concept that came out 10 years ago when there's been a lot of like popular growth limits, the engagement with the topic.

Natan

Yeah. It's a combination of too long and not enough impact.

Madi

Yes.

Natan

So it's like a perfect storm of a useless, uh, buzzword.

Madi

And I think though, like that feeling that we're talking about with Industry 4.0 as a buzzword is what's driving a love hate relationship with trying to come up with a new term to describe where we are with that transformation in Industry 5.0.

Natan

Yeah. And if we go back to IoT, so like, while I think that term is still around and probably will be around and there is uh, qualifiers like industrial IoT. They're mutating. They're mutating to something completely new. So I think the, the best one I can point to on the IoT example is like going to edge. So you, you start talking about where is the connectivity happening and why is it happening? As opposed, hey, here's a new different type of internet. Because internet is so clear and web is so clear, and connectivity I think is so clear. And when you think about Industry 4.0, I just think as opposed to, say IoT. It's like people are like, "uhhhh," and that's what I'm trying to get. Like if you put a gun to my head now and say, tell me what's Industry 5.0.

Madi

Mm-hmm.

Natan

I have no idea. I'm still trying to figure out what is 4.0, uh, formally, but I dunno, that's this moment we're, we're in right now.

Madi

Well, I'm gonna take that gun to your head and put you on the spot for helping, helping answer a few pop quiz questions. Uh, so I have a, a list from our producer, Gabby of business buzzwords.

Natan

Oh my God.

Madi

So I'm either going to give you an acronym or a piece of the buzzword, and-

Natan

Am I gonna embarrass myself now?

Madi

You'll either get a point for knowing the buzzword or not get a point.

Natan

Okay.

Madi

And I'll make them more difficult as we, as we go through.

Natan

Let's play the game.

Madi

All right, so first one blank is king. Blank is king. Blank is king. The blank being fill in the blank.

Natan

Cash is king.

Madi

Uh, no. That's a good guess though. And I could see it being a good buzzword, but the one on the list is content is king. So I'll give you half a point.

Natan

Content is king.

Madi

We'll give you half a point here.

Natan

I mean, yeah. For what you do is it's clear.

Madi

Yeah. Yeah. I was like, it's a little marketing centric. Okay. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll give it's it, it was our test.

Natan

I think it's an equivalent.

Madi

That was our test.

Natan

Yeah. Okay. Warmup.

Madi

Alright. Next one. Low blank fruit.

Natan

Oh, low hanging fruit.

Madi

Low hanging fruit.

Natan

Yeah. But is this like, uh, corporate speak versus buzzwords or jargon. You know?

Madi

I think they start to overlap. Corporate speak in, a Manufacturing industrial setting would probably start to include industry 4.0 and I-

Natan

Let's break that down, Madi. Should we brainstorm and kind of try and wireframe and get it like a scratch?

Madi

Gotta look for the quick wins, the value adds. Make sure we're in alignment.

Natan

And circulated or something.

Madi

Look for synergies.

Natan

All over. Yeah, I'm all for synergies.

Madi

Next one. Move the blank.

Natan

Move the bar? Move the post?

Madi

No, no. That surprised me.

Natan

Um, it's, it's been a long day.

Madi

Move the needle.

Natan

Oh, move the needle. Ah, shit. I hate it when people say that. Did you move the needle today Madi? I definitely moved some needles.

Madi

So we have all these buzzwords. There's like 50 on here, so I'm gonna spare you. We'll, we'll say that. That was a win for Natan, he got, I think two out of the three.

Natan

I, I don't feel like a winner. I'm sorry. It's okay.

Madi

So we have all these buzzwords. How do we like, reclaim or get value out of, uh, buzzwords? It's like, is it worth trying to reclaim buzzwords.

Natan

No.

Madi

No?

Natan

I don't know what's the value that you're referring to, but I think that if you build a good product and you're authentic about what it does and how you relate it to the environment, territory, whatever, whoever needs to operate, and you do it in a way that is simple and people understand it, the buzzwords will take care of itself. So they could be external to you, and people will tell you, take PC, that's a great canonical example. It's like it's a personal computer. There was a computer. Now it's personal computer. It becomes synonymous with the name of a product and a category and all that kind of stuff. It's simple. And like in this sort of weird mix between B2B and consumer reality we live in today, there's no escape.

There will be more good and bad buzzwords and stuff, but we as, uh, humans and, you know, build businesses and all that kinda stuff, are continue to gonna give things names and some will be great and accurate and will represent what's actually happening, and some will suck and stick around and we will have to bear them until they die and move along.

Madi

Just keep working towards making great ones.

Natan

Yep, exactly. I think it's also like a function of like how successful or impactful a business, and I think the canonical example there, think about ERP. What the hell is ERP? Was that necessary?

Madi

Mm-hmm.

Natan

Not really. It's like a long, annoying type of, you know, enterprise relationship platform or whatever. I guess that's ERP, right?

Madi

Enterprise resource, resource management?

Natan

We don't even know.

Madi

I don't either.

Natan

That's actually interesting. There you go. But we know what ERP means, so it's even like detached. And why? Because like there's a trillion dollar economy around it with like huge companies and it's here forever. And I don't think it, it's going away anytime soon because it's real, because it's driving business and it's very clear what it is, and everybody move along.

Madi

So we'll focus on real language. Maybe sometimes real languages will slip into the buzzword world, but yeah, you don't need to to claim the buzzwords.

Natan

No, no need to.

Madi

Well, see you next time.

Natan

Next time. Is there a buzzword for that?

Madi

Um, no, I can't think of one, no!

Natan

Good. All right.

Outro

Behind the ops is brought to you by Tulip. Connect the people, machines, devices, and systems used in your production and logistics processes with our frontline operations platform. Visit Tulip.co to learn more. This show is produced by Gabby Elanbeck and edited by Thom Obarsky. If you enjoyed listening, support the show by leaving us a quick rating or review. It really helps. If you have feedback for this or any of our other episodes, you can reach us at BehindTheOps@Tulip.co.