Technical jargon: What does "Big Bath" actually mean?

One term that will continue to haunt us in the coming months is Big Bath. This term comes from the world of finance, where people like to talk in English, just like we do. But what exactly does it mean?

In a Big Bath, various legal techniques can be used to make the results shoot down and the bonuses shoot up afterwards. Literally, the term can first be translated as "big bath", which almost sounds like wellness. In fact, however, it is an accounting term defined by a company's management team knowingly manipulating its income statement to make poor results look even worse. This then makes future results appear better. The trick is that this sends things down the drain that don't actually belong to a particular event, but are simply well suited to being included.

Corona as scapegoat for everything

The current Corona crisis is one such event. For many, this virus comes just in time to subject themselves to a Big Bath. They blame the poor thing for everything that has been neglected or neglected over the last few years instead of admitting that they were just a fair-weather captain. In German, there would be several more precise formulations for this activity, but they simply sound less smooth.

In analog terms, it means a cold shower, in terms of content it means a big clean-up, and in etymological terms it means "bygones be bygones! For example, about neglected digitization, inefficient and outdated processes, or hierarchical organizational forms with titles like Junior Art Director, Assistant Art Director, Creative Director, Executive Creative Director, and other obstacles that make our industry tired and sluggish. So what's called for is fitness, not wellness.