Insider - Buzzwords - Aljazeerification

So you breeze into work and you think everything’s alright with the world. Revenues are alright, your debts are manageable, even your colleagues are tolerable company. But then you pick up the papers and, blow me, your company’s all over the front page. You now feel an overwhelming urge to pack your bags and book one-way tickets to Rio for you and yours.

And maybe the kids.

This unpleasant, but increasingly common phenomenon, has become known as Aljazeerification – having your business thrust into the headlines by unexpected external events. There have been plenty of examples of this recently: Shell for one. It seems a lot of people may have been taken a little by surprise when the restatement of assets began. There was perhaps even more surprise that key people had known about the problem for months beforehand.

It could mean the end of your job or – worse – it could be you who is left to pick up the pieces and do the follow-up interviews on the BBC and some foreign channel you’ve never heard of. You will do this with just five minutes of media training from a ludicrously expensive PR company.

Training will amount to ‘be yourself’ – advice not quite in harmony with your current feelings of stomach-clenching terror at suddenly being on every TV in the land.

Baffled by business buzzwords? Then send them to [email protected] and we’ll attempt to deconstruct them.