Table Of Content‘We hear business bullshit all day. But few know how it started,
where it comes from or what to do about it. André Spicer is funny
and clever on the topic and we badly need his practical wisdom to
win through.’
—Margaret Heffernan, business woman
and author of Wilful Blindness
‘Anybody familiar with corporate life will find this book extremely
amusing—until realizing that it is dead serious. The battle against
bullshit is one worth fighting, even if you lose it. Read Spicer’s book,
and engage.’
—Professor Martin Gargiulo, INSEAD
‘We live in an age of rising panic surrounding the status of truth
in our politics and society. In this brilliant polemic, André Spicer
demonstrates that our economy has long tolerated empty sloganeer-
ing and meaningless jargon, making a small minority of gurus and
consultants very rich, but leaving the vast majority of us with a sense
of deep pointlessness.’
—William Davies, Reader in Political Economy, Goldsmiths
‘Thorough and entertaining: Spicer’s mirror for managers. Spicer is
one of these rare business academics who really understands business
but also manages to maintain a healthy distance. This enables him to
hold up a mirror to managers as few people can. In an insightful and
entertaining way, he exposes nonsense in the world of b usiness—of
which there is plenty. However, what I liked best about the book is
that he doesn’t stop there: he also carefully explains why it persists
in companies. This is important, because it enables managers who
grasp his analysis to cut out the costly bullshit from their firms,
improve their organisations in the process, and create a competitive
advantage.’
—Freek Vermeulen, Associate Professor of Strategy and
Entrepreneurship, London Business School
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Business
Bullshit
Our organisations are flooded with empty talk. We are con-
stantly ‘going forward’ to lands of ‘deliverables’, stopping off on
the ‘journey’ to ‘drill down’ into ‘best practice’. Being an expert at
using management speak has become more important than deliv-
ering long-lasting results. The upshot is that meaningless corporate
jargon is killing our organisations.
In this book, André Spicer argues we need to call this empty
talk what it is: bullshit. The book looks at how organisations have
become vast machines for manufacturing, distributing and consum-
ing bullshit. It follows how the meaningless language of manage-
ment has spread through schools, NGOs, politics and the media.
Business Bullshit shows you how to spot business bullshit, c onsiders
why it is so popular, and outlines the impact it has on organisations
and the people who work in them. It also describes what we can do
to minimise bullshit at work. The author makes a case for why organ-
isations need to avoid empty talk and reconnect with core activities.
André Spicer is a Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Cass
Business School, City University of London. He has spent two
decades studying the impact of management speak on organisations
and the people who work there. He has advised a wide range of
organisations and frequently appears in the global media to discuss
business issues. Professor Spicer has published several books, includ-
ing Contesting the Corporation, Metaphors We Lead By, The Wellness
Syndrome and The Stupidity Paradox.
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Business
Bullshit
A n d r é S p i c e r
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 André Spicer
The right of André Spicer to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested.
ISBN: 978-1-138-91166-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-91167-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-69249-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by codeMantra
Truth is like poetry. And most people fucking hate poetry.
—Overheard in a Washington, DC bar and reported in
The Big Short
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Contents
Preface xi
1 Introduction 1
2 Bullshit: a spotter’s guide 21
3 Why is there so much bullshit? 65
4 How to do things with bullshit 117
5 Cutting the bullshit 163
Acknowledgements 191
Index 193
ix
