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Why is kick starting things suddenly all the rage nowadays? It is virtually impossible to open a newspaper or turn on the TV news without reading or hearing of an initiative that is going to kick start something or other.
Government ministers have particular difficulty resisting a phrase which sounds so quick and decisive even though the problem they're talking about is invariably deep and complex.
Needless to say, kick starting is now spilling over into business parlance. For example, the other day I read that "ominous warnings of sustained economic pressures" (surely the week's most tortuous avoidance of the word "recession") would "kick start the telematics industry in the company car market".
Superficially, this sounds plausible enough. Take-up by car fleets is low so surely there must be a lot of pent up demand out there. All it needs to open the floodgates is a brisk thump on the kick start lever.
But on a deeper level you can detect the telematics industry's frustration. Despite the apparent scope for rich pickings, the car fleet sector remains unimpressed with tracking technology.
Yes, you can make a case for telematics in cars on various grounds but its cost-effectiveness is borderline and the technology is clearly not a high priority for most fleet managers. In the end, there is no shortcut to increased volume. Opening up the market will come down to more product innovation and good old-fashioned slogging away for sales.
The same goes for the Government's apparently mandatory requirement for its spokespeople to use the K word in connection with any and every subject - especially the economy. It's rather ridiculous given the scale of the global financial crisis to suggest that consumer demand or economic growth can simply be kick started.
Try mentally substituting the words "wave a magic wand" next time you hear someone say "kick start". Ten to one that's what they really mean.
Finally, going back to the unintentionally candid PR piece for telematics, any product that needs a stiff recession or a magic wand to attract buyers must be a really tough sales proposition. Government ministers might like to think about that as well.
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