Governments all around the world are now, reluctantly, cutting their expenditure. However, after years of using the shovel to pile the cash on, they have no idea how to use pruning shears to cut waste without cutting useful public services.

So here is a useful rule of thumb: if you cannot tell what someone actually does by their job title, there is a good chance that their post is surplus to requirements – as is the superior who thought up the title.

Happily, the fashion for silly job titles seems to be fading. As with most crimes against good business practice, it is the public sector, then big business, who are the usual suspects, and most small businesses are relatively blameless.

As well as giving a bad impression of an organisation, meaningless job titles are unnecessary barriers to communication. In particular, everything should be made as easy as possible for the customer – and business can be lost if confusing job titles mean that a promising lead speaks to the wrong person.

In any case, pompous and high-sounding titles are always particularly out of place in a small business. “Sales Manager” seems more honest and reliable than “Director of Marketing”, “Works Manager” than “Director of Operations”, and “Personnel Officer” than “Director of Human Resources”.

This applies above all to the Boss. For an entrepreneur to call himself “Group Chairman, Managing Director, and Chief Executive Officer” is counter-productive when he is the only one in the company. He is immediately revealed as a poser, not a serious businessman.

Better to stick with a simple, discreet “Director” on the business card.

Modesty can be an asset in business – an asset in the very literal, financial sense of the word.