Showing one’s humanity is a sure-fire way to bring a storytelling dimension to communications. Yet, most executives do the exact opposite. They make a conscious effort to hide their humanity. Why? To paraphrase Rudyard Kipling, we’re told early in our careers that business is business, personal is personal, and never the twain shall meet. It’s a …more
Turning to the front page of The New York Times business section yesterday, I did a double take. Sitting above the fold found The New York Times taking on the story line of Amazon constructing buildings around oversized greenhouses in downtown Seattle. I wouldn’t exactly call this a puff piece, but it sure does come …more
Sure, the Golden State Warriors just landed one of the top free agents in NBA history and will now enter the 2016/2017 season as prohibitive favorites to take back the championship crown from LeBron. But the behind–the-scenes winner in the Kevin Durant sweepstakes was “owned media.” Eschewing the conventional news release and press conference, Durant …more
Why don’t companies care about job descriptions? It makes no sense. Every company claims “people are our most valuable asset.” Every company is fighting competitors for talent. Every company recognizes that first impressions count. Yet, most companies churn out job descriptions that sound like they came from the same HR 101 handbook. The end result …more
Failure. Point to a movie or a book that captivates, and I’ll show you failure. Shrek. Absolutely. Something more high-brow, like the best-selling novel “A Little Life.” Again, failure underpins the story. For it’s the failure — something going horribly awry, the more pain the better — that creates the tension in a story. As …more
With Game of Thrones Season 6 off to a good start — more conspiracy theories on Jon Snow than the JFK assassination — let’s rewind the tape to last season. Specifically, I want to zero in on episode 8 of Season 5 when Tyrion makes his sales pitch to Daenerys to land her chief advisor …more
Many business professionals today accept storytelling as an effective means for communicating … in theory. Whether they actually embrace the act is a different story (retaining my reputation for bad puns). Of course, many books promise to recast you with Ira Glass’s gift for narrative and Jimmy Kimmel’s wit. I wrote about one such a …more
The relationship between journalists and PR is never going to be a perfect fit. Each party has a different agenda. But I do think it’s possible to diffuse what is too often considered a contentious relationship between PR and journalists. Specifically, framing the issue by supply-and-demand economic theory would go a long way to solving …more
In one corner we have the biggest, baddest and most valuable company on the planet, Apple. In the opposite corner sits the U.S. government getting more ornery by the minute. As you know by now, the government has asked Apple to unlock a phone used by a terrorist in San Bernardino. Apple has refused, believing …more
