What’s Our Name?

Preparing for Dr. Peterson’s visit next week, I’ve been asked “so what’s our official abbreviation”?

When the Enterprise Innovation Institute was formed four years ago, Martha Schoonmaker made a valiant attempt to ban any sort of abbreviation. But it’s ten syllables, and humans are lazy, and some sort of short form was inevitable.

Unfortunately, the obvious acronym—”EII”—leads directly to “EIEIO,” which is not particularly flattering. I’d like to strongly discourage its use.

So, let me make it official. We’re “E-I-squared.”

How do we type that?

In email, or spreadsheets, or for internal use, just type “EI2.”

On the Web, type “EI<sup>2</sup>” to get the superscript: EI².

For external-use documents prepared in Microsoft Word… the superscript function will normally make the “2″ too small to read easily. It’s acceptable because it’s so simple. But the more obsessive among you might find it worthwhile to use ‘Format > Font > Character Spacing > Raised by > 3 points,’ then reduce the fontsize of the ’2′ to 80%. Do it once and set up a macro, or cut-and-paste.

In PowerPoint or Keynote… again, the superscript “2″ is acceptable, but think about how it’s going to look on the big screen, and consider arranging custom text blocks to achieve a better effect. Compare the differences below:

But, however you type it, we all pronounce it the same way: “E-I-squared.” Not “E-I-I.” Not “E-I-two” (yes, I’ve heard that!). “E-I-squared.” I’ve (politely) corrected both Mark Allen and Gary Schuster on it, so you can correct anybody you encounter using the wrong name!

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