Can anyone else remember the days when business-people could speak for more than a minute without using the (usually redundant) phrase "going forward"?

I was listening to Radio 4 yesterday and heard some captain of industry (who should be demoted) explaining that, 'going forward', his company plans to focus on its core business in the UK. All he really needed to say was "we're going to focus on our core business in the UK" but if he really felt it necessary to emphasize that he was speaking about the future, he could surely have said "in future, we're going to focus...." etc?

Presumably, the phrase is used in an attempt to persuade the listener that the speaker and / or their company is dynamic and go-ahead, even when the evidence suggests otherwise. In this case, el capitano was admitting that an attempted expansion into Europe had been a disaster and that his company is now getting out of the Euro-zone as quickly as possible. Sounds more like a disorderly retreat than 'going forward' to me.