Here's a little ditty from the e-INSIDER newsletter that brought a wry smile to my face.

BLM—Buzzword Lifecycle Management

The information technology (IT) industry is alive with buzzwords (BW). The management of BW represents a significant area for improvement for both the BW users (BU) (for example, vendors, analysts, and consultants), BW consumers (BC) (mostly end-users), and BW fellow travelers (BFT) (for example, the media). BW lifecycle management (BLM) is a proven discipline being applied to this crying need within the software industry.

Even more so than IT, the language used to describe procurement activities is astonishingly fractured. Some examples:

1) the words purchasing, procurement, strategic sourcing, sourcing, etc can each be paired with word "department" to describe the same function within an organisation.

2) the great spend management / supply management debate of 2006.

3) an organisation I observed recently that, whilst changing the name of its procurement department from "Strategic Sourcing" to "Sourcing", was attempting to convince its employees that they still needed to think strategically.

I suspect we play the game of musical names because procurement is often seen by outsiders as a somewhat dirty concept and once a particular descriptor becomes too closely associated with the act of "buying" then the next generation of terminology springs up.

If this is to change, it is incumbent on us to stand up, be proud of what we do, and claim our ground – regardless of what we call it.