VC Cliche of the Week

I like cliches that are visual.  It's why I am a fan of open the kimono, which according to an asian woman entrepreneur who was in my office last week is offensive.  I apologize for offending anyone who took offense and will be more careful with my use of that one in the future. That said, I still like it.

Visual cliches are great because they pack some extra punch.

One cliche that I use a bit is The Strawman Proposal. I don't even know what the origin of the "strawman" term is but to me it means something that you can take apart without consequence.  The image for me is a strawman that you can kick around, pull apart, etc without harming anyone.  I know its kind of brutal, but that's the visual that comes to mind.

A Strawman Proposal is very useful in all sorts of business exercises - budgeting, dealmaking, strategic planning, etc. It is hard to have a really meaty conversation about something without having a reference point.  So A Strawman Proposal serves as that reference point.  It is not meant to be a "draft" of the final proposal.  It's meant to be something that "can be kicked around, pulled apart, etc".  So its more important that A Strawman Proposal address all the key issues in some way than anything else.

The cool thing (and the reason the word gets used so much) is that you can tell everyone upfront that the proposal is just A Strawman.  That tells everyone not to waste a lot of time and energy on the specifics of the proposal. So poeple don't start negotiating when The Strawman arrives (in theory).  They should just start thinking.

It's a great business trick and a great cliche. The next time you are doing some important business in a large group, start with A Strawman Proposal.  And let me know how it goes.

Comments

[scott partee]

I like your definition. Sometimes I think of the "straw man" metaphor as a target, as well. For example, putting up a "straw man" argument means, to me, intentionally putting forth something for debate that distracts attention from another subject. Sort of like a scarecrow.

[Mo Nourb]

Scott is correct. When discussing logical fallacies, "straw man" is a distraction/character assassination to digress from the topic at hand.

[Pete Cashmore]

Interesting definitions of "straw man" - I tend to use it to mean misrepresenting the arguments of your opponent. Here's the Wikipedia definition and origin:

"As a rhetorical term, "straw man" describes a point of view that was created in order to be easily defeated in argument; the creator of a "straw man" argument does not accurately reflect the best arguments of his or her opponents, but instead sidesteps or mischaracterizes them so as to make the opposing view appear weak or ridiculous.

The name 'straw man' comes from a physical analogy which highlights the fallacious nature of the a straw man argument. Imagine two men in a fight. The first person throws a punch at the second, the second person, in defense, builds a man from straw, starts throwing punches at it and later claims victory for winning the fight against the other person."

[Mark Mullin]

Wow - for once a post by Fred where I know an answer instead of wandering off with more questions.........

The above comment on strawman is accurate, but the modern context for the term is thanks to Uncle Sam - large projects, especially those involving the unfortunate intersection of military needs and technical misdeeds go by a naming standard for their standards documentation, i.e. the proposals that result in the construction of $1B+ aircraft - from memory, but I think I remember em all, in order of increasing 'strength' (a ___very___ relative term)

Strawman - pretty much what you think it is, run it up the flagpole
Woodman - nobody got fired for the strawman, so we added some more stuff
Tinman - We've now spent so much money, we really ought to see if we can get a real proposal together
Ironman - We'll be fired/demoted/cashiered if we don't get this project off the ground, but it's more loose ends than coherent objectives
Steelman - Yeah right - everybody just gave up and thats all we're going to do - move on to phase 2, the endless series of contract amendments