Second-Tier? Says Who?!

Second-tier is one of those eye-of-the-beholder kind of terms that gets bandied about casually and expands or shrinks to fit the moment. 


For almost three decades, U. S. News & World Report has ranked colleges and universities, and their various programs, using a four-tier system. The top 50 were in the first tier, numbers 51-100 were in the second tier, and the colleges in the third and fourth tiers were listed alphabetically. 


This year, USNWR changed the system for ranking law schools and increased the number of "numerically ranked institutions from the top 100 to the top three-quarters of the schools. The remaining schools are listed alphabetically as the second tier" (¶ 7). Some people might argue that renaming what previously was the fourth tier and calling it second tier sounds a bit like grade inflation. Be that as it may, the change illustrates the subjectiveness of the term.


By contrast, Richard Binder Fountain Pens  gives a fairly explicit definition, in their multi-page glossary, of what constitutes a second-tier fountain pen (who knew?!) and even lists the companies producing such pens. Of course, when one rates anything -- no matter how explicitly -- one invites opposing voices, as evidenced in the "First Tier Companies and their Second Tier Pens" discussion forum on The Fountain Pen Network's Web site.


Second-tier thinking in the business world, however, can prove quite profitable. 


Examples? 


Stay tuned.