There is Hope. Listen to CXOs.

I have been thinking about this for quite some time. Actually I think about it every time, I write a report where I have to go through a lot of CXO quotes. For the uninitiated, a lot of senior management people (Chief XYZ Officers) from a lot of companies (especially listed ones) speak pretty frequently with media and analysts tracking those companies - to give out details about ongoing operations or to talk about future strategies and tactics. You can see such people being interviewed all day on CNBC or ET-NOW. And yes, a large part of my work for the last two and half years has involved reading/listening to such senior executives from U.S. client companies.

And I ain't cribbing about it! You know why? It makes me feel good about my future. Every time (read most of the time), an executive spews out inane nonsense, I think, "if this guy made it to the top, then there is a lot of hope for people like me".

Let's see an example. A quite high-ranked executive recently gave this "gyaan" to a group of leading industry observers and analysts:

"At the end of the day, shelf-savvy marketing for us is all about blending and balancing love and value, fusing inspiring ideas with commercial disciplines, and bringing those two together to truly create value."

Anyone who has read Kotler knows that marketing at times does read like global gyaan. But that statement makes the entire book (Kotler) look accurate to the 100th decimal point. And it didn't end there:

“Shelf-savvy marketing is all about converting shoppers into buyers. That’s how value is created, and we do that at the shelf. That’s where it all happens. So we’ve got to be able to make sure that we’re bringing that to life."

I mean seriously??? And that learned audience bought it all? Most of the transcript reads (or must read) like this.

I believe, what he was trying to convey was that his company is planning to introduce more products (or SKUs), at different price points and convey the message to the shopper through in-store media (TV, banners, etc.). But as a fellow analyst pointed out, every consumer company tries to do that - all the time (at least in U.S.). So why waste so many people's time with what is obvious? I guess they have to justify their fat pays somehow.

And this is just one example. We analysts encounter such great quotes every day. Perhaps these CXOs and their speeches are the reason our community exists - if we did not have to interpret them, we would be quite jobless. So yay! One more reason to be happy about people speaking 1000s of words without making any sense! :)

In their defense, some times these executives have to wrap their future strategies in carefully planned words that deliberately don't give out the meaning or the whole truth. And many executives are also able to state whatever they want to in a straightforward manner. But some just are incapable of it.

It is also possible that this inability to understand the meaning behind some great words just means that I don't get the meaning. If so, I can't help it. And if I have bored you with long and garbled sentences that don't mean anything, please forgive me, I am just an analyst. :)