Who invented corporate speak ?

My next door neighbor is a manager in one of the big hotels here in Brugge, yesterday we were sitting talking and he told me that he was having trouble finding someone to fill a position in the management team, the job is a PR manager and the phrase he used was he wanted an employee to"progressively integrate e-business intellectual capital" WTF he frequently speaks gibberish and i am not sure if he understands himself sometimes when he says such things as "we need a team player who can think outside the box" well to me that is a contradiction in terms 'a team player' will conform to the wishes of the most senior person at the meeting and a person who 'thinks outside the box' does not conform to the rules.
I feel like a dinosaur when talking to him (he is 36 and i am 65) it's as if we come from different worlds.

 

"we need a team player who can think outside the box" = We need someone who will do as he/she is told and come up with ideas wen we are too stupid to think of them, (i.e. all the time).

Edit: 5,000 posts - yay! - me!:hyper

 

I've always thought of corporate speak as the super-rich white people version of Ebonics - both of which seem to be designed to confuse anyone who the speakers feel shouldn't be in on the conversation.

PS - Congrats on the 5000 posts! :cool

 

I know what you mean Bill. My wife recently landed a great job at a successful industry in my city. My wife finds it bewildering as the senior management people pepper their speech with odd acronyms during staff meetings. She feels very lucky to be there, but, it is taking a bit of time to figure out what the admin types are talking about.