Business has become divorced from everyday life – and the lost vowels of “Abrdn” prove it
Underneath Standard Life Aberdeen’s silly new name there is clear thinking, but it is dangerous for those of us who don’t speak “business”.
Proudly unveiling a disemvowelled company name, Abrdn chief executive Stephen Bird said the change from Standard Life Aberdeen created a brand that was “modern, agile and digitally enabled”. Quite why consonants are agile and vowels are stiff is not immediately obvious. In truth, the renaming of Standard Life Aberdeen does make sense, but the strange choice tells us something important about the relationship of business to the society in which it is hosted.