fad surfing

fad surfing
(FAD sur.fing)
pp.
In business, adopting one fashionable management style after another. Also: fad-surfing.
— fad surfer or fad-surfer n.
Example Citation:
Go into any large bookshop and take a long, hard look at the business/management section; see books there with titles such as Managing Without Management, Peanut Butter and Jelly Management and, flavour of the month at the moment, the simplistic parable Who Moved My Cheese? (by the author of The One-Minute Manager).
Academics have even coined the phrase "fad surfing" to describe the take-up and discarding of trends based on bestselling books. But is this burgeoning industry selling lasting solutions or are they the modern equivalent of the snake-oil salesman?
— Keith Austin, "Flavour Of The Month," Sydney Morning Herald, May 15, 2002
Earliest Citation:
Fad-Surfer or Catalyst?
To set off civil war among your friends, just start to talk about the care and control of consultants. Almost everybody has a happy tale or a horror story.
You've heard about teams of arrogant MBA's to came and charged $ 999,999.00 to comfort a nervous CEO with what he wanted to hear, while managers down the line buttoned their lips in rage. You've seen senior partners in the big consulting firms sell a deal to top management and then send in squads of overpriced juniors to waste everyone's time getting educated. Mainly, I'd guess, you've heard of buzzword gimmicks being pushed out where they don't fit.
"Too many consultants and clients end up fad-surfing together rather than working on the real problems," argues Eileen C. Shapiro, a consultant herself with Boston's Hillcrest Group, Inc.
— T. George Harris, "Fad-Surfers, Risk-Dodgers, and Beloved Companies," Harvard Business Review, January 1993 / February 1993
Notes:
This phrase seems to have been coined by consultant Eileen Shapiro. She wrote a book in 1995 called Fad Surfing in the Boardroom, and she's also the source of the phrase in the earliest citation.
Related Words: Categories:

New words. 2013.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • History of surfing — The history of surfing is shrouded in the mists of time, as the origins of surfing are unknown. The art of surfing was first observed by Europeans in 1767, by the crewmembers of the Dolphin at Tahiti. Later, Jackson Crane, an American serving… …   Wikipedia

  • car surfing — n riding on the roof of a moving car. A dangerous teenage fad of the late 1980s, influenced by the US film Teen wolf. See also train surfing …   Contemporary slang

  • urban surfing — n riding on the outside of a moving car, bus, train, etc. A dangerous fad of the later 1980s among adolescents, first in the USA and later elsewhere …   Contemporary slang

  • Business (General) — Business General adminisphere aerotropolis bads BAM boomsayer booth bunny borrow brains Buns of Steel …   New words

  • Daniel Frank Gerber — Born May 6, 1898(1898 05 06) Fremont, Michigan Died March 16, 1974(1974 03 16) (age 76) Fremont, Michigan Nationality …   Wikipedia

  • Books and Magazines — backstory belligerati bibliotherapy blog book blurb whore bonkbuster bookling carnography …   New words

  • Corporate Culture — acoustic privacy adhocracy al desko BHAG bozo explosion BYOD corpocracy corporate anorexia …   New words

  • buzzword-compliant — adj. Describes a piece of writing that is littered with jargon and buzzwords. Example Citation: Your average resume is as useful as, say, your average Time/CNN report on American soldiers gassing their own: the most enlightening revelation is not …   New words

  • hedgehog concept — (HEJ.hawg kon.sept) n. An idea or concept that, if done extremely well and to the exclusion of almost everything else, can help a person s career or a company s business achieve their full potential. Example Citation: Walgreens hedgehog concept… …   New words

  • orchestra model — n. A hierarchy in which a central leader supplies an entire organization with direction and instructions that are tailored to specific groups within the organization. Example Citation: Anyway, as Drucker, Sealey and several other pundits have… …   New words

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”