Rationalization

Cody Carbonata is a huge Coke drinker. But his doctor has told him to start watching his caloric intake. So...he switched to Coke Zero. Now, instead of the 3-4 regular Cokes he used to drink daily, he can guzzle 24 Coke Zeros a day, and not worry about a thing! Never mind whatever other poisons they've used to replace the sugar to give this drink it's Coke-y goodness; Cody isn't overly concerned about that. He's much more interested in rationalizing his decision to consume mass quantities of soda on the reg.

So yeah, that's rationalization. In finance, it's a little different. Here it refers to a reorganization of the players in a company, or of marketing strategies, or of company policy, etc...all in the interest of maximizing efficiency.

Maybe it's time to start airing commercials on network television. Or maybe it's time to scrub the entire marketing department and just let the sales team do their thang. Or maybe the time has come to remove the S&M dungeon from the corporate washroom. Whatever the powers that be believe might optimize the bottom line.