'Solution' May Be Most Overused Buzzword in Business.

By Michael Sasso, Tampa Tribune, Fla. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Aug. 21--TAMPA, Fla.--Walk into a Publix these days and you'll find your "complete meal solution," according to Publix's Web site.

In Tampa, Britt Pogue, of Wachovia DavisBaldwin, is a vice president of "employer solutions."

And on the Internet you can find Child birthSolutions.com In sum, you can eat a solution, be a solution -- even give birth with a solution. Confused? Get in line.

The word solution has been widespread among computer companies, many claiming to be your "IT [information technology] solutions provider."

But recently the word has flourished throughout the business world, from charter flight companies offering "flight solutions" to firms offering "foreclosure solutions."

What's going on?

Businesses "calling something a solution makes it easy on them," said Kristy Friedel, who handles public relations for Alliance Communications of Tampa. "You don't have to explain how it works or what it does. ... You just know that it solves your problems."

Fariborz Ghadar is director of the Center for Global Business Studies at Pennsylvania State University. He believes IBM pioneered the use of the term. As the price of computer gear dropped, computer companies could no longer make as much profit on sales. So IBM started focusing on service by tailoring a computer system to fit a specific business, Ghadar said. For example, if you were a car dealer, IBM would design a system for your dealership. If you were a journalist, it would design one for your newspaper.

In essence, "IBM came up with these solutions," Ghadar said.

IBM spokesman Jeff Gluck couldn't say whether IBM was the first to use solutions. But the company started using the word in the late 1990s to explain the full range of products and services it provided, he said.

Other computer-related businesses grabbed onto solutions, along with other business buzzwords such as turnkey and value-added.

For example, Santu Rohatgi and Ryan Rohatgi, a father-son team, named their Tampa computer consulting firm Rising Solutions. The Rohatgis will do everything from helping a business buy the right software to helping it find low-cost labor in countries such as India.

"It's bringing resources together and processes together and delivering a solution," Ryan Rohatgi said.

Now, even nontechie businesses appear to be jumping on the solutions bandwagon.

Publix Super Markets has a program called Apron's, in which cooks prepare meals in Publix stores. Publix's Web site provides this description: "Developed by Publix culinary experts, the Apron's program is a series of easy-to-prepare recipes that provide a complete meal solution."

The Tribune wanted to know how Publix came up with "complete meal solution," but company spokesman Lee Brunson could not be reached. The Wegmans Food Markets chain in the Northeast has similar in-store demonstrations. Who helps come up with the recipes? A "manager of fresh meal solutions," said Jeanne Colleluori, a Wegmans communications specialist.

Meanwhile, solutions apparently is ubi...uitous in the window treatment industry. Hunter Douglas Window Fashions, a leading manufacturer of blinds and other window coverings, has distributed its "Solutions" brochure for about a year.

"This hopefully provides solutions to [customers] to cover their windows," said Kim Kiner, Hunter Douglas vice president of product design. "A solution is an answer to a need. And that's what we do. We make solutions beautiful."

Why is solution so hot?

Perhaps because even nontechie businesses are so diversified today that they can't fit everything they do on a business card. In Tampa, Wachovia DavisBaldwin is an insurance company but also handles companies' retirement programs and other personnel duties. All those functions are summed up with "employer solutions," said Pogue, the vice president of employer solutions.

"You can't put on your business card that you do all these things," Pogue said. "I'd have to give them my name with a book."

Public relations executives say companies should be wary of solutions, but they don't write off the word entirely. Charles Epstein of Backbone Inc., a Boca Raton public relations firm, said "Solutions in and of itself is not a terrible word. It suggests that we're listening to you and trying to custom-tailor a solution to your problem."

But a company must be specific about what kinds of solutions it provides.

" 'Employer solutions' has so many meanings its ceases to have any meaning at all," Epstein said.

A national business consulting firm, Deloitte Consulting, does not consider solutions objectionable. Deloitte sells a computer software program called Bullfighter, which will highlight confusing jargon in a company's documents and suggest a clearer alternative. Solutions is not among Bullfighter's 350 "bull words," said Shelly Peng, Deloitte Consulting's director of global PR.

So is the public baffled by "IT solutions" and "complete meal solution?"

The Tribune spoke to people at a Tampa fitness center this week about that ...uestion. They didn't necessarily know what the "solutions" referred to, but they figured that if it's a solution, it must be good.

Jennifer Francis, a stylist at a Tampa salon, wondered whether "IT solutions" dealt with international terrorism, instead of computer systems. But when asked about Publix's "meal solution," she came closer to the mark.

"Don't go around looking for your meal," she said. "We have a ready- made meal."

Sally Patton, who works at the fitness center, said, "The word solution has a lot of weight to it. I think it's brilliant. We're your fitness solution."

Nevertheless, Penn State's Ghadar had to chuckle when he heard of ChildbirthSolutions.com , which offers information on everything from grandparenting to surrogate motherhood.

"There you go," he ...uipped. "Now that's a complete solution!"

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(c) 2003, Tampa Tribune, Fla. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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