A to Z of Business Storytelling -10

Journeys

When you attempt business storytelling, whether it is for 5 minutes or 20 minutes, the story shall encompass a journey. The business storyteller may take any story, but he/she shall ensure that how a person or a company moved from Point A to Point B. When the journey of A -> B is elaborated, the audience understands the process of transformation, which would be the key takeaways at the end of the day.

When we talk about the journey, it can be anything as follows:-

Success Journey Stories — These stories are typical corporate success stories which started with the humble beginning of the founder and he/she managed to nurture the business. Generally these stories are relevant for new joinees who need to about the company and feel proud about being part of the organization.

Classical example for this category would the story of Nirma, Royal Enfield and Peter Englad. By going through the journey of such companies, team members get inspired.

Failure Journey Stories — These are the stories about companied that miserably failed due to greediness, lack of credibility, non-compliance etc. These elaborate how at a particular point of time, the company started collapsing due few key decision makers.

Classic examples are Satyam Computers, Enron, Volkswagen etc. These are the journeys one has to take them as bad examples in corporate life.

Strategy Journey Stories — When we talk about expanding a business, one of the key strategies is integration of the supply chain. Integration can be categorized as vertical integration, horizontal integration or diversification.

Classical examples diversification journey stories would be Murugappa Group, TVS Group and Mahindra Group.

Startup Journey — Startup have unique identity compared to traditional corporate organization in terms if vision, funding, hiring, retaining talents and work culture. Most importantly they leverage new age technologies to address pain areas of the customers or society. It is heartening to know that there are nearly 100 unicorn companies in the startup eco system as on date. It is worthwhile to emulate them on various aspects. A business leader may talk about the most relevant startup journey with his/her employees.

Classical examples in this category would be Freshworks, Razorpay and MakeMyTrip.

In every business travelogue, there would be ups and downs. In corporate world, narrating them thru business storytelling would yield great takeaways for the audience.

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