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Oct 15, 2003 13:05
20 yrs ago
2 viewers *
German term

rechte Tasche - linke Tasche

German to English Bus/Financial
Nur für Konzern XYZ zu arbeiten wäre‚ rechte Tasche – linke Tasche.

A quote from a Konzernvorstand regarding a debate about one of the Konzern's subsidiaries branching out and looking for other customers on the market (outside of the Konzern).

I know what they mean, but is there a good, catchy expression for this in English?
Proposed translations (English)
3 +1 left pocket, right pocket
2 +4 robbing Peter to pay Paul
4 null operation
4 customer cannibalization
4 zero sum transaction
3 trading a hundred for twenties

Discussion

Non-ProZ.com Oct 15, 2003:
My interpretation Hi Ian,
I think it is referring to money not really going anywhere - just being transferred from one pocket to the other within the same entity. The author goes on to say motivation is lacking when losses don't hurt and there are essentially no profits either....
IanW (X) Oct 15, 2003:
Hi Rebecca - perhaps you could let us know how you interpret this yourself, having seen the rest of the text.

Proposed translations

+1
18 mins
Selected

left pocket, right pocket

It's also used in English. We always used this expression when I worked for Siemens Canada, but it may have been a Siemensism, hence my medium confidence level
Reference:

http://www.apitraining.com/articles_increase_gross.asp

Peer comment(s):
agree Melissa Field : I agree with your suggestion. It could also be rephrased - something like 'from the left pocket into the right'.
11 hrs
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Many thanks to everyone for their time and effort! I did find several hits on Google for "left pocket-right pocket" transaction, so I decided to keep it as close to the original as possible. I do think "robbing Peter to pay Paul" is a very nice literary turn of phrase, however. Thanks again, Rebecca"
16 mins

null operation

might be a possibility.

[PDF]Design Patterns as Litmus Paper to Test the Strength of Object- ...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
... 10], p233: Teller encapsulates different kinds of abstract banking requests, which
are ... to Title::renew(), which eventually is a null operation, a degenerate ...
www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/~ajhs/papers/litmus.pdf - Similar pages
[ More results from www.dcs.shef.ac.uk ]
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1 hr

customer cannibalization

Not exactly catchy :)

However, this is what I have seen in the USA where two divisions of one company are fighting over the same customer.

See the link.
Reference:

http://www.optimarketing.com/en/a_proven_client.htm

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1 hr

trading a hundred for twenties

Just a thought.
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2 hrs

zero sum transaction

that picks up the idea of there being no overall gain - whatever the amount of gain in one area there is an equivalent loss in another

http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ZESUGAM.html
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+4
8 mins

robbing Peter to pay Paul

I'm not entirely sure what is meant here (hence the "low" confidence level!), but it may well be a case of "robbing Peter to pay Paul, i.e. taking money from one pocket to put it in the other.

Just a thought ...

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Note added at 1 day 1 hr 1 min (2003-10-16 14:06:57 GMT)
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Having seen Rebecca\'s explanation, I think this fits the bill.
Peer comment(s):
agree Bogdan Burghelea : nice literary touch
19 mins
agree Steffen Walter : also my thought
1 hr
agree Mario Marcolin
18 hrs
agree Saskia
1 day 12 hrs
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