The very first time I encountered someone using a large amount of “business speak” (Or “Corporate Speak” or "Business Jargon") in a meeting was shortly before the single copy side of the magazine business started to fall apart. The industry at that time was shifting from first generation family owned businesses with a sales oriented background to second and third generation larger scale businesses that wanted to look more "professional" to their retail customers. This was often accomplished by hiring people who'd previously worked for national retail chains in buying or marketing positions. Although in one odd instance, I encountered a new employee who managed the distribution department and had previously worked as an accountant for Dunn and Bradstreet.But in the first time I bumped into the jargon, the speaker was explaining that he was looking to “synergize” operations between companies. He wanted to “front load” releases...and on and on and on. It was a very long, one sided conversation and my guess is that I cocked my head and stared wall-eyed across the desk at my host and wondered why I hadn’t bothered to learn this language before.