revector
(ree.VEK.tur)
v.
To change a business plan, especially as a means of reducing the size of a company's workforce.
Example Citation:
"Responding to changing international market conditions, Teleglobe (NYSE,TSE: BCE), the e-World Communications Company, today announced plans to revector portions of its business during the next month which will result in the elimination of approximately 450 positions, or 20 percent of its workforce."
—"Teleglobe Announces Rationalization Plan," Business Wire, August 30, 2001
Earliest Citation:
Pete Higgins, vice-president of Microsoft's applications and content group, said: "In the past 12 to 18 months we have had to revector our MSN strategy to embrace the Internet."
—Steve Boxer, "Gates swings open the office door INTERNET," The Daily Telegraph, December 19, 1995
Notes:
The word vector has been used a verb for quite some time in the aviation industry, where it means "to steer an aircraft by changing the direction of thrust of its engine; to direct an aircraft in flight." The pedigree of revector as a verb is based on computer programming, where it means "to reroute an incoming signal." The use of revector in the business world seems to be morphing into a euphemism for laying off or firing employees, but it was used originally to mean a change in the direction of a business.
