Business Term: Low-Hanging Fruit

What’s this? Monday’s come and gone and yet there’s no post? We’ll fix that right up. Check out our newest Monday (well… Tuesday, really!) business term: “Low-Hanging Fruit.”

It’s a curious notion indeed, if a little cloying and unladen with depth of meaning. Originally, this phrase referred to the easiest crop to gather in an orchard. An apple, pear, plum, perhaps an orange or tangerine. For a gardener, this denotes produce which is easiest to collect as it is located nearest to the ground. So low, in fact, you could pick it without any ladder, and without having to reach far. During a sunny summer, it’s fruit that is ripe, fresh and sweet, and yet easy to obtain.

The metaphor, then, is for the action, improvement or change in a company that is easy, ready to be implemented or performed, and will yield good result. The only problem for businesses is identifying such effortlessly obtained delicacy and then siphoning off its juicy contents to the benefit of all in the business. There are some interesting books on the topic, but it’s also quite easy to follow practical advice from experienced corporate workers who simplify identification of such goals via few simple steps. You might say, they make a low-hanging fruit of pinpointing such.

That’s the theory, of course. But there are real-world examples of such tactics, ranging from SEO activities to sustainable energy solutions. Sadly, though, not everyone is the fan of soon-to-drop nectar-rich goodies.

In fact, according to the Pareto principle, we should already try to go for the 20% of tasks that bring 80% of benefit. Aka the low-hanging fruit, which in this case can be dubbed kaizen approach (big impact through tiny but meaningful changes throughout the business) or the quick-win analysis (e.g. via a so-called PICK chart).

Unfortunately, many people in marketing, expert CEOs and consulting specialists all warn that, in fact, ease of achievement of some activities is usually indicative of their low value. Some actions create false hope of providing great outcome, while the results of others are simply too small. So what would be the point of going for the low-hanging fruit, they ask, if it is empty calories or not enough food to make a meal out of?

So perhaps next time you’re chasing that elusive fruit, you’d better just get down to earth and start improving the tree from the roots up. Or maybe just work hard and smart and let go of such dubious nuggets of agrarian wisdom altogether. Me? I’m going for the fruit that has already dropped. Who needs all that effort of picking!

VOCABULARY

term – pojęcie, określenie
low-hanging fruit – nisko wiszący owoc, bułka z masłem
notion – pojęcie, idea
cloying – mdły, przesycony (słodyczą)
unladen with sth – nieobciążony czymś, pozbawiony czegoś
to refer to sth – odwoływać się do czegoś, odnosić
crop – plon, zbiory
orchard – sad
tangerine – mandarynka
to denote sth – określać coś
produce – płody rolne
to pick sth – zebrać coś (np. owoce)
ripe – dojrzały
metaphor – metafora
improvement – ulepszenie, usprawnienie
to implement – wdrożyć
to perform – wykonać (np. zadanie)
to yield sth – przynieść coś (np. rezultat)
effortlessly – bez wysiłku
delicacy – smakołyk
to siphon sth off – odpompować coś, odciągnąć
contents – zawartość
to sb’s benefit – z korzyścią dla kogoś, na czyjąś korzyść
to simplify sth – uprościć coś
via – za pomocą, przez
to pinpoint sth – wyznaczyć coś, określić
real-world – z prawdziwego życia
SEO (search engine optimization) – optymalizacja wyniku wyszukiwania (w wyszukiwarce online)
to range from X to Y – sięgać od X do Y
sustainable energy – energia ze źródeł odnawialnych
goodies – dobra, smakołyki
according to sth – zgodnie z czymś, według czegoś
the Pareto principle – reguła Pareto (20/80)
to go for sth – zabiegać o coś, starać się
aka (also known as) – znany również jako
to dub sth sth – określić coś jakimś mianem
impact – wpływ
meaningful – istotny, mający znaczenie
quick win – działanie przynoszące szybkie efekty
so-called – tak zwany
chart – diagram
CEO (Chief Executive Officer) – dyrektor naczelny
to warn – ostrzegać
ease of achievement – łatwość w osiągnięciu (czegoś)
indicative of sth – sygnalizujący coś, oznaczający
false hope – fałszywa nadzieja, mrzonka
outcome – wynik, rezultat
the point of doing sth – sens robienia czegoś
elusive – ulotny, niechwytny
to get down to earth – zejść na ziemię, zająć się czymś praktycznym
to let go of sth – zostawić coś, odpuścić
dubious – wątpliwy, podejrzany
agrarian – rolniczy, rolny
nugget of wisdom – perła mądrości