One thing you quickly learn from writing about business – the corporate world, much as it likes to pretend that commerce is a frightfully complicated but essentially scientific and logical process, actually does a lot of stuff because of fashion. Call it group-think, fad or collective adoption of dumb jargon – many trends happen in various industries largely because they become the received wisdom of the day.
This thought occurred recently reading an article by The American Lawyer‘s Aric Press, which recounts a recent industry debate during which one frustrated general counsel threatened to “let those animals at some of our service providers”. The animals in question are the procurement teams that large companies routinely roll out for various kinds of, well, procurement. But not law. As Aric recounts, even the suggestion in the debate led one law firm leader to ruefully respond: “Thank God I’m old.”
