Best in class

A buzzword that betrays the lineage of most management consultants and those influenced by their way of speaking.

Why would anyone want to be thought of as “best in class”?

For those of us who remember our school days, and were not best in class — by my asinine reckoning, that's twenty four in twenty-five of us — the fellow who was “best in class” was a dyspraxic lad who routinely had his head stuck down the lavatory, pencils jammed up his nose and his lunch money stolen. He left school a broken figure; pale, wan and with the sparks of bitter resentment kindling a small fire deep in the pits of his sunken eyes.

No-one knows for sure what became of him, but there’s a rumour he went into management consulting.