Mangled Ericspeak

How not to pitch. I watched an American called Eric Daniels on newsbites yesterday. He had reason to be cheerful.

The banking giant he currently runs was bailed out by the UK Government to the tune of £20bn. A welcome change in fortune is signified by a last year loss of £4bn switching to a first-half profit this of £1.6bn.

Yet as I watched, I was gobsmacked. How can someone with so little presence, such inability to get a point across, and using so much gobbledegook, hold such an exalted post?

The Skynews footage is a masterclass. In how not to talk. Thankfully, I was not the only one to spot this.

Philip Aldrick in his Telegraph report, rues his “mangled management speak”. Mocking his choice of syntax, he particularly rounded on words such as “outcomes” and “optionality“.

It appears that Mr Daniels is camera shy. But is that an acceptable excuse for not getting your message across well?

You can see the full interview here. You’ll note, if you can stand all thirteen minutes, that pretty much any soundbite you could extract would lack the clarity required.