open the kimono

Definition

To reveal confidential information or be transparent about internal operations—a phrase that has aged spectacularly poorly and should probably be retired.

Example Usage

The vendor wants us to open the kimono on our cost structure, which seems invasive in multiple ways.

Origin

American business slang from the 1980s, considered culturally insensitive today

Fun Fact

This phrase is rapidly disappearing from corporate vocabulary as people realize it's both offensive and creepy.

Source: Outdated business negotiation terminology

Related Terms

Beginner

Wheelhouse

Someone's area of expertise, borrowed from baseball by people who have never watched a single game. If everyone stayed in their wheelhouse, nothing would ever get done because wheelhouses apparently don't overlap.

💼 Corporate / Business

Intermediate

inertia

In physics, an object's stubborn resistance to changing its state of motion; in corporate culture, a team's resistance to changing literally anything. Newton's first law meets Monday morning meetings. The force that keeps companies doing things 'because that's how we've always done it' despite overwhelming evidence suggesting otherwise.

💼 Corporate / Business

Beginner

Think Outside the Box

An instruction to be creative, usually delivered inside a windowless conference room by someone who has spent 30 years building the box. The box, ironically, is made entirely of people telling you to think outside it.

💼 Corporate / Business

Beginner

cascade

The process of distributing information, decisions, or directives down through organizational hierarchy levels, typically ensuring that everyone hears the message third-hand and slightly distorted, like corporate telephone.

💼 Corporate / Business

Advanced

pebblin'

To persistently annoy someone with constant small requests and tasks, like being pelted with tiny pebbles until you lose your mind. It's the verbal equivalent of death by a thousand cuts, except each cut is someone asking 'hey, can you do just one more thing?'

💼 Corporate / Business

Intermediate

information silo

Isolated pockets of knowledge or data that aren't shared across an organization, creating inefficiency and redundancy. The natural state of every company despite expensive collaboration tools designed to prevent it.

💼 Corporate / Business

Translate This Term

See “open the kimono” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on X Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Intermediate

covenant

A legally binding promise or restriction in a deed governing how property can be used, often imposed by developers to ma...