Eminent FT colleagues regularly attack workplace jargon. They claim that it reflects sloppy thinking. Wrong. It is evidence of a shrewd desire to manipulate competitors, customers and colleagues. Business is a battle to capture and retain value. Jargon is just another weapon. Its proactive deployment is a mission-critical capability of big hitters with a passion for performance.

On Tuesday, The Plain English Campaign awarded its annual Golden Bull Awards. Six out of seven went to companies. The stand-out winner was Virgin Trains. A customer had asked why the company website did not display a particular ticket price. Virgin Trains responded: "Moving forwards, we, as Virgin Trains, are looking to take ownership of the flow in question to apply our pricing structure, thus resulting in this journey search appearing in the new category-matrix format."