Editorial: A 'unique solution' for technobabble
The Worcester Business Journal is a leading provider of unique paginated B2B media solutions.
In simpler, more accessible terms, the Worcester Business Journal is a newspaper. But these days, it seems it's not enough for a company to just say what it does.
This is especially true in Central Massachusetts (or more precisely, along the 495 belt) where more than a few high-tech and pharmaceutical companies employ a pretentious linguistic charlatanism indecipherable by most readers.
Reading these company press releases and announcements, one might conclude that there are very few companies in Massachusetts that make useful products.
Instead, companies in a business world fraught with all manner of puzzling technology, personnel and medical malady, have resorted to providing solutions to those problems.
Take Marathon Technologies Corp. of Littleton.
Marathon is "the leading provider of automated, fault tolerant-class availability solutions for virtual and physical environments."
Wait. What?
Candela Corp. in Wayland "manufactures and distributes innovative clinical solutions..."
What is it like working on the line in a solutions manufacturing plant?
It turns out Candela makes laser equipment used in cosmetic and other surgeries.
And Marathon is a fascinating company that makes software that backs up Microsoft Windows computer networks.
The folks at Framingham's Courion Corp. are "the provisioning experts for results-driven operations." It doesn't get any easier to understand after that.
These are complicated companies, and they do complicated things. But to describe themselves in a way understandable only to those within their particular niche of suppliers and customers does a disservice to Massachusetts.
The people of Massachusetts – all the people of Massachusetts – are supposed to take pride in the fact that our state is a leader in software development, pharmaceuticals, research, health care and high-tech manufacturing. But we can't if the companies leading the way are unable or unwilling to describe what they do in a way that isn't full of dazzling insider language and business acronyms. By failing to recognize an audience beyond the company's walls, they fail to foster pride about their accomplishments among the residents of the state they call home.
It's not that hard to do.
The Protonex Technology Corp. in Southboro says it "develops and manufactures compact, lightweight and high-performance fuel cell systems."
Wasn't that easy?
Abiomed Inc. in Danvers "is a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical products designed to assist or replace the pumping function of the failing heart."
Interesting, understandable and informative.
Some companies describe themselves as if they are afraid to admit to the relative modesty of what they do. Others come across as sinister, as if they'd like to hide what they do, but not from those who they wish would continue to buy their products.
But Massachusetts was built on the manufacturing of modest products. Would the textile manufacturers of the 19th Century have described themselves as the leading providers of fiber-based garment assembly solutions? Companies today should take a closer look at what they're sending out to the world, and do a double check that it's not jargon-laden babble. Our technology may have made great leaps forward, but our ability to tell people what we do seems to have only gone backward.
WBJ Web Partners
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