I’m a big fan of The Economist. The writers have perfected storytelling for a business audience. Of course, the writers toil in relative obscurity with a no-byline policy that leaves readers to wonder “Who the hell wrote that piece?” So I can’t tell you who penned the masterpiece called “A Different Game,” addressing data storage …more
Scorn makes for good storytelling. It brings out emotion and ultimately unscripted drama. Look no further than the bevy of reality TV shows cranking out the profits to understand the appeal of NOT knowing how the story will turn out. With this in mind, I suspect we’re going to see and read a helluva story …more
When it comes to a crisis, everyone tends to fixate on the “bad press.” I think it’s more revealing to zero in on the communications controlled by the offending company. How are they telling their story within their control? That’s why I find the Toyota open letters to customers so fascinating. Just because you control …more
I rarely address fiction in this blog. While many of the same concepts apply to storytelling in business, there’s still a gulf between the two disciplines. But Sarah Lafferty pointed me to a book of Kurt Vonnegut short stories published after his death. The introduction includes what Vonnegut calls “Creative Writing 101,” which offers sound …more
I’ve got the Twitter religion. I’ve experienced its power in the form of crowd sourcing, research and new connections. But Twitter is not a platform for storytelling. Mark Drapeau who pens the blog Cheeky Fresh makes this very point in Microstorytelling Overkill and the Conundrum of the Exciting Event (must be nice to not have …more
The title says it all, “Storytelling and Your Quest for Business Success.” It’s rare for a magazine to examine the power of storytelling in business. This particular article comes compliments of the trade book One +, which caters to more than 30,000 meeting planners. Before you scoff, consider the plight of meeting planners in …more
Tiger takes center stage tomorrow to publicly share his mea culpa. Every pundit and his brother has weighed in with a view. The local NBC affiliate was in our office today to interview our crisis guru John Radewagen. So I’ll keep my view brief. The statement on Tiger’s Web site doesn’t lead me to believe …more
I introduced a regular feature called Moes Takes last month. As a refresher, I worked with Rob Moes who was VP of marketing for Philips in the mid 1980s. During an interview at COMDEX, a reporter pressed Moes for projections on how many CD-ROM drives would be sold looking out five years. Rob responded “That’s …more
Alexandre Bilodeau winning Canada’s first gold medal in the men’s freestyle moguls on Sunday got me thinking. Every Olympics reveals terrific human interest stories such as Bilodeau and his inspiration coming from his disabled older brother. You certainly don’t need a media kit to write up Team U.S.A.’s historic beat-down of the Russian hockey team …more
