The days of corporate waffle are numbered. The more management-speak in a company report, the worse a firm is doing, say the developers of a "bullshit" detector. The computer program - called Bullfighter - sifts through companies' reports and accounts picking out management jargon and obscure corporate language. Expressions such as "lifecycle management", "synergies" and "benchmarking" are to Bullfighter like a red rag to, well, a bull. Developed by Deloitte Consulting, the Bullfighter is more than just an exercise to rid the world of arcane and convoluted business terms. Deloitte claims that there is a direct link between clear communication and good financial performance. The better the Bullfighter rating, the less jargon there is and the better the company will do. Brian Fugere, partner at Deloitte, said: "Straight talking companies out-performed non-straight talking companies in terms of revenue growth - consistently."
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To put Bullfighter to the test, Deloitte ran Enron's accounts through the program. "We found that as the company got into deeper and deeper trouble, the language got more and more obscure," said Mr Fugere.
So far, only US companies have taken the Bullfighter test. But The Independent on Sunday decided to run the last set of accounts from some of the UK's largest companies through Bullfighter.
The results showed Britain's high street banks were particularly guilty of corporate gobbledegook. Barclays, which is currently running an advertising campaign with the slogan "fluent in finance", came out worst.
Barclays had a particular passion for the word "synergy", a term which Bullfighter describes as "the consulting version of buy one, get one free". Barclays sinks to a particular low with the phrase "non-organic opportunities".
"It's a case of choosing words to look more impressive and important when you don't have anything specific to say," said a spokesman for the Plain English Society.
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=417770