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Going forward: CEOs should stop saying 'going forward'

Posted May 2nd 2008 4:30PM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: Management

I'm tired of reading press releases filled with CEO-speak: meaningless phrases, extra words, and a preference for the convoluted over the substantive. I would much prefer that corporate publicists write press releases in Ebonics. Just glancing through Google News, here are some recent examples of my least favorite phrase, "going forward," in action:

"Going forward we maintain our focus in "mission-critical" markets yet remain diversified across the intelligence and DoD community."

"One, let's talk about revenue because that's where we're going to live or die going forward."

Within the last day, Google News shows 17,324 stories with this phrase.

But let's analyze this: what exactly does it mean to say "going forward?" It means that the company is talking about what it hopes to do in the future -- as opposed to what it hopes to do in the past? Fortis CEO Stan Marshall recently said in a press release that "The significant consolidated capital expenditure program, planned at more than $4 billion over the next five years, is expected to drive earnings growth going forward."

But why do you need to say going forward? Surely the $4 billion being spent over the next 5 years will not drive past earnings growth! Not even Enron got that creative. Saying "going forward" is redundant.

And it isn't just CEOs who are using this phrase. New York Post sportswriter Phil Mushnick wrote about how the term has entered the sports coaches' vernacular:

It's no longer enough to regard talk about the future as talk about the future. Now you have to double-dip it, just in case talk about what might happen tomorrow can be confused with talk about what might happen yesterday ... "Going forward, wanna play golf, tomorrow?" "Going forward, yes. But isn't it supposed to rain, tomorrow, going forward?" "Going forward, it might. I'll call you in the morning, going forward." "Good. Going forward, I look forward to hearing from you. Have a nice day, going forward."

Next press release I see that has the phrase "going forward," I'm shorting the stock. A company that resorts to trite and redundant cliches can't have great prospects, going forward.