Each January for the past eight years I have handed out prizes to the finest, freshest examples of corporate guff spoken or written in the preceding 12 months. Until now my methodology has been autocratic: all decisions have been taken by me. This year, as a nod to the sheer size and maturity of the bullshit market, I’ve toyed with democracy and enlisted FT readers and colleagues to join me as judges. Yet I find I’m not ready to give up absolute power just yet. I have humoured my fellow judges up to a point, but when they have made the wrong choices, I have overridden them, thus ensuring all winners of the 2013 Golden Flannel Awards are truly exceptional, utterly original, jargon giants.
過去8年裏，每年1月我都要選出上一年最華而不實、最新鮮的企業界廢話（口頭及書面用語兩方面），向其頒發大獎。先前我的評選方法一直奉行專制主義：所有決定都由我一人作出。今年，爲了向規模龐大、日益成熟的廢話市場致意，我也玩了把民主，招募了FT的讀者和同事與我一起來當評審。但我覺得自己還沒準備好立即放棄絕對權力。所以在一定程度上我會遷就各位評審夥伴們，可當他們選擇錯誤時，我會推翻他們的決定，從而確保2013年度「金廢話獎」(Golden Flannel Awards)的所有獲獎者都是絕對出類拔萃、完全原創的廢話王。