TABLE OF CONTENTS The reason our business systems are as complex as they are is because we have "paved over the cowpaths." [3] We have set in stone some very arbitrary semantics that have accumulated over a long period of time. I'm not advocating that we change this, but that we understand it. To bring order and reason to the domain of business systems, we have to understand what exists, and how it got that way.
This chapter also shows the semantic basis for "restatement of earnings," which routinely eliminates billions of dollars of value from publicly traded companies. We'll see how semantics can dramatically increase a physician's income, or land him or her in prison. And we'll see where billions of dollars are wasted interpreting things that shouldn't need to be interpreted.
The basic problem with semantics in business, in a nutshell:
We put words on everything.
Then we put meaning on the words.
Then we disagree.
And then of course we computerize it. In this chapter we examine where the semantic disagreements originate. We wrap up by examining contracts, because this is one of the areas where semantics is most troubling for business.
Business is only possible when there is an expectation of shared meaning between parties. As long as the expectations are congruent, and the eventuality agrees with the expectation, business continues.
Let's begin our exploration of semantics in business by seeing if it is possible to have business without semantics. Perhaps the simplest form...
