Business Speak: Two Terms of Interest

WHEELHOUSE

Merriam-Webster gives the original definition -- "an area on a  boat or ship where a person stands to steer."

Sometime in the late 1950s, sportswriters began using "wheelhouse" to describe a batter's sweet spot, as in, "The pitch landed right in Casey Jones' wheelhouse, and he hit the ball out of the park."

In 2009, the term "wheelhouse" was used in the television series, "Glee,"  and it appears to have taken off from there.

Wiktionary now defines the term as "matching a person's interests or abilities well," and offers as a synonym the phrase "up someone's alley."

For several years now, "in the wheelhouse" has ricocheted around the business community.

        An advertising firm that specializes in consumer products might pitch for a shampoo account by saying that sort of promotion is "right in our wheelhouse."

        A banker who has underwritten mezzanine loans for restaurants might tell a pizza entrepreneur that such financing is "right in my wheelhouse."

Lots of wheelhouses out there these days. The word may be coming to be regarded as overused and a bit of a cliche.


STRAIGHT DOWN THE FAIRWAY

This is a golf term with a long history.  It is a complimentary description of a long, efficient drive off the tee toward the cup.

Until a few years ago, there seem to have been few non-golf uses, usually in sports contexts:

              A Cleveland Plain Dealer headline in 2009 combined it with a player's outlook in a sports headline:  "A low-key life is straight down the fairway for Ben Curtis as Bridgestone Invitational looms."
              A clothing firm named straightdown.com named one of its products the "Fairway fleece."

Now the term has been adopted by the business community to describe risk-averse decision-making, often with a disparaging tone.

              "That start-up has potential, but the XYZ fund won't touch it.  XYZ will only look at projects that are straight down the fairway."

              "The other bankers probably would have done a better job, but the company played it straight down the fairway and hired Goldman Sachs instead."