How to create a really bad corporate acronym

Engage with key stakeholders and decision-makers
Come up with goals, values and associations for your company
How can we squeeze these into an acronym?
Out go any concerns about parts of speech
Looking good!
Actively bring in the shoehorn to squeeze everything in
Loving it!
I’ve nearly finished
Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhhhhh

The resulting acronym should contain at least two, preferably three or more parts of speech. Bonus points for using phrases and/or sentences instead of words and thereby turning it from an acronym into an acrostic, particularly if the phrases in themselves make no sense either. EMAP lose points for having just one word per letter, for the fact that those words are all in the Concise Oxford and the fact that the words are all adjectives. Must try harder.

If you’re a rookie at this game, you might accidentally end up spelling out a word that has some relevance to the essence of the company. More experienced corporate communicators will avoid this trap and pick a word that has nothing to do with it, then use clip art relating to the word in all their communications.

Extra double bonus points and a Milky Way for spelling out a “word” that isn’t actually a real word.

Explore posts in the same categories: corporate speak, crap acronyms