From Dog Food to Merlot

It’s funny to think about the evolution of business jargon. In the last few years, we somehow moved from “Eating Our Own Dog Food” to “Drinking Our Own Merlot,” which means “to use your company’s own software or solutions.” As an aside, I’ve heard Champagne or Wine as substitutes for Merlot – but it does beg the question: Why did we start with Dog Food? Why not just Food? Well, we have Microsoft to blame for that. In the 1980s, Microsoft Manager Paul Maritz wrote an email challenging his team to use their own product. The title of that email was “Eating our own Dogfood.”

Conclusion: Aside from the fact that this would likely be an incredibly boring book, I would love to know the history and rationale behind business jargon and the evolution of certain phrases over time.

References and Resources

Eating Your Own Dog Food from Wikipedia; Type: Article

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Does this resonate with you? Have you seen the evolution of certain business jargon? Care to share? We’d love to hear from you.