Building A Company Narrative
CHAPTER 1
A Means of Building
Competitive Advantage
Honing the story of your business and getting others to tell that story the way you want it told is one of the most effective – but underutilized – means of attaining competitive advantage in the public arena.
Narratives determine how an employee, an investor, a policymaker or a member of the community – your most important stakeholders – would explain your business to others. Whereas brand identity speaks to consumers, corporate narrative addresses the broader stakeholder set that determines reputation.
“Not only are stories instruments of strategy, they also give form to strategy…Narratives have moved to the fore in the contemporary strategic literature in military, politics, and business. In order to come to terms with recent trends in thinking about strategy we need to come to terms with stories.”
A Narrative is the aggregation of disparate information and activity into a cohesive frame.
Provides Explanations
X happened because of Y.
Cause and Effect
Establishes an arrow of relationship between events or actions.
Enables Prediction
Because we know X, we believe Y will happen next.
All The Pieces Fit
Origins, motivations and outcomes tie together in a cohesive story.
Great narratives provide stakeholders with a mental framework to interpret news, investments, announcements, performance and other facts about your business – putting things you do or say into a more meaningful context. Without the benefit of a strong narrative, these communication activities are far less effective.
The strength of your narrative affects who wants to work for you, who wants to partner with you and who wants to invest in you; whether you get the benefit of the doubt if something goes wrong; the valuation assigned by investors and; your reputation with stakeholders.
Narratives provide a valuable filter for internal decision making, guiding how senior leadership spends time and resources, reinforcing positive behavior and strengthening corporate culture.
CHAPTER 2
The Building Blocks
of Narrative
Great Narrative Consists of Five Key Building Blocks
CHAPTER 3
Simple, but Not Easy
Great narratives are simple to communicate but sometimes difficult to develop. Businesses are complex – and senior leaders see things through different lenses. Building the narrative requires working through these differences, piercing through ambiguity with clear, concise language.
It helps to have a structured process – to treat the development of narrative with the same care and rigor that you’d treat a brand identity or strategic planning exercise. After all, the questions addressed by corporate narrative can be among the most fundamental questions facing the business.
Force fuzzy thinking to the surface. If you struggle to answer underlying questions in a succinct way, something more fundamental may need to be resolved. It helps to play skeptic: What does this mean? Is it credible? Or are we fooling ourselves? Great narratives are not so much created as they are uncovered.
The best narratives build on what’s already there, connecting the dots in a way that is logical, credible and believable.
Sharpening company narrative often leads to important shifts or bursts of insight about the business – a strategic benefit of the process.
CHAPTER 4
Your Narrative Must
Out-Compete Other Narratives
Your narrative will face competition from other narratives: what your adversaries say about you, the defaults to which the media reverts, what your stakeholders assume and the political climate in which you operate.
The process of developing and extending your narrative successfully requires an understanding of the external context – and how narrative is shaped by these forces.
Narratives should be believable; this requires a clear understanding of your self-interest. Transparency of motivation allows people to buy in and believe what you’re saying. If stakeholders can’t connect your actions to your ability to earn a profit, they may find your claims less credible.
Never confuse pablum for narrative. Certain claims are made so frequently that they lose their ability to differentiate and break through. “We’re innovative…we put our people first…we are sustainable.” These claims are white noise unless they are connected in tangible, easy-to-see ways to the business model and ambitions of the business.
Great stories have some kind of conflict or change. Your narrative is no different: the adversary is a competitor, the status quo, a problem to be solved or a barrier to be overcome. Telling your company’s story in terms of the change you are driving is a powerful frame.
CHAPTER 5
How to Bring
Your
Narrative to Life
Align company communications. Integrate some form of the narrative in every kind of communication you put out. Every earnings call should contain an opening argument – and refer back to it at relevant points. The boilerplate in your press releases should convey what business you are in and how you will grow. The front end of a presentation or town hall meeting should establish the larger story as context for what the audience will hear next. Recruiting materials, media preparation, social and digital media all provide touchpoints for establishing the narrative.
Use it as a decision-tool. The narrative provides a strong frame to align leadership and evaluate actions. The things you DO say more than the things you SAY. If a public facing initiative seems to undermine the narrative you are establishing – ask whether it runs counter to your strategy.
Bring it to life. Initiatives in the realm of social investment, community engagement or philanthropy can be designed in order to extend the narrative further – and accrue to the reputation of the business. This requires creative thinking and discipline. Giving away money is easy. Designing programs that leverage a company’s core competency to solve a societal problem is harder – but creates more reputational equity.
Use proof points. Remember the adage “show, don’t tell.” Use concrete examples of business practices and results as an internal test of whether your narrative “holds up.” If the examples are strong, use them to illustrate your narrative with stakeholders.
Contact Our Corporate Reputation Practice
For more information about corporate narrative and how it can be applied to your business, or to learn more about our Corporate Reputation practice, contact our practice leads:
Clare Thomas Maher
Managing Partner
Rob Gluck
Managing Partner