You’ve all heard, no doubt, about the power of stories — including stories in the corporation. Companies of all sizes are calling in storytellers to help loosen up creative powers, to suggest coherent story lines in apparently unconnected data, and simply to make the business environment more human(e).
Aside from grunting and scratching, the story is the most primitive and archaic communication medium, and this may account for its enduring power.
Who can resist the idea of then, and then, and then? Then what happens? It’s the impulse that drives our daily lives, our not knowing what next and yet stepping bravely, or foolishly, forward.
And the impulse that keeps companies going, despite or because of all the rational and scientific management plans that can be devised.
Of course, a business with no plan, no idea, of the next step may be stepping into a bog of its own devising.
Once upon a time there was a company called XYZ that had a brilliant idea and no idea what to do with it. Until the time it was four or five years old, it enjoyed a series of spectacular successes. It was coddled by the market, wooed by investors, and gave back fabulous ROI. Then along came the big bad wolf of recession, tight credit, customer fickleness, and … and … and …