Chapter 2: Business Semantics


The reason our business systems are as complex as they are is because we have "paved over the cowpaths."[3] We have set in stone some very arbitrary semantics that have accumulated over a long period of time. I'm not advocating that we change this, but that we understand it. To bring order and reason to the domain of business systems, we have to understand what exists, and how it got that way.

This chapter also shows the semantic basis for "restatement of earnings," which routinely eliminates billions of dollars of value from publicly traded companies. We'll see how semantics can dramatically increase a physician's income, or land him or her in prison. And we'll see where billions of dollars are wasted interpreting things that shouldn't need to be interpreted.

Widespread Abuse of Language

The basic problem with semantics in business, in a nutshell:

start example

We put words on everything.

Then we put meaning on the words.

Then we disagree.

end example

And then of course we computerize it. In this chapter we examine where the semantic disagreements originate. We wrap up by examining contracts, because this is one of the areas where semantics is most troubling for business.

Business is only possible when there is an expectation of shared meaning between parties. As long as the expectations are congruent, and the eventuality agrees with the expectation, business continues.

Let's begin our exploration of semantics in business by seeing if it is possible to have business without semantics. Perhaps the simplest form of business would be straight barter. Imagine face-to-face barter, based on pointing at the items to be traded. On the surface there is no language exchanged, and therefore no opportunity for semantics.

Even in this transaction some semantics are lurking in the background. Somehow these traders have agreed to a common meaning of personal property, without which the trades wouldn't make any sense. Let this barter example stand as the minimal semantic business.

Replacing barter with buying and selling in a currency adds a layer of semantics. A seller of wheat who wanted pigs no longer had to find a pig farmer who wanted wheat; he or she merely had to find someone who would pay currency for the wheat. But only if the currency "meant" something.

The money, not being useful in and of itself, has another set of expectations associated with it: "What is it worth?" "Is this money genuine?" and so on. The currency has semantics associated with it.

[3]Sam Walter Foss, "The Calf-Path." Available at http://www.xenodochy.org/ex/calfpath.html.




Semantics in Business Systems(c) The Savvy Manager's Guide
Semantics in Business Systems: The Savvy Managers Guide (The Savvy Managers Guides)
ISBN: 1558609172
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 184
Authors: Dave McComb

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