Two of the most dangerous words for any business are “of course.” 

Think about the corporate narrative of the place you work. 

Does your company have one? Do you know it? Can people find it?  

Of course. Every company has a narrative. Just look at all that content out there. 

End of story, right? Not if you want to win.

Here are the better questions to answer:

1. Does your corporate narrative concisely define who you are and what you do?
2. Does it do so in mission-and-vision jargon, or in the plainspoken language of life?
3. Does it get to the point, or does it take you 10 minutes to explain it?
4. Does your narrative make clear how you’re any different than the competition?
5. Does it compel people to care? You know, the people whom your narrative is for: customers, patients, voters, partners, investors?
6. Does it unify your employees and give them an easy way to describe what you do?
7. Does it reflect the personality of what it’s like to work for you? To shop with you?
8. Does it distinguish your corporate narrative from your brand narrative?
9. Does your company view its narrative narrowly as messaging? Or does it view it as it should, as business strategy driving and defining all that you do?
10. Does your company accept the hardest truth of all? Your narrative is not about you. It’s about the people you need to persuade. It’s about how they hear you.

So, let’s try this again.

Yes, you have a narrative. But is it the right one? 

Maybe “of course” should give way to a change of course.

Consider taking a candid look at whether your corporate narrative is doing its job.  

The benefits of doing so are significant.  

So are the risks of ignoring the tough questions.  

Get your narrative right and you’ll be telling your best story. Employee morale will likely jump. Every dollar you spend on marketing is much more likely to matter. 

Get it wrong and the competition will define you. Audiences may just ignore you. And you may be pumping your budget into promotion that isn’t even based on the right story. 

There is no middle ground on this one.  

People are too busy, and public mistrust in corporations is too high, for any company to treat its core story as a secondary priority. Your narrative either wins or loses every day.  

Here are three ways to simplify the challenge of finding the right one.

Make Strategic Choices

A narrative is not every important thing you could say about your company. It’s not a place to pack in your history, your values, your products, your platforms, and your people. It is not your strategic plan. It’s not the place to tell everybody in the company they are loved.  

It should be the essential story of what you want your audiences to know and remember the most. That’s why a narrative is more than language. It’s about making smart choices.

Don’t Rely on Your Brand Narrative Alone

Many successful companies are built on a winning product, or a portfolio of them. That’s a brand story. But a corporate narrative is bigger than the products you make. It’s the story of why you matter to all your audiences – your consumers, your employees, your investors, your other stakeholders. It can include or complement your brand narrative, and it certainly should fit with it. But it should not rely on it. They have different jobs.

Adopt an Audience Mindset

The thing about corporate boardrooms and conference rooms is this. They tend to be filled only with people who work on the inside. That’s also where most narratives get built. 

But who, exactly, is checking with the folks on the outside?  

You need to pull your audience into your story to shape it, not just react to it.  

Find out what their starting place is. Do they understand your narrative? Does it motivate them? Does it matter at all? If not, which language would make them more likely to listen to you? To care about what you do? To take the action you want?

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Remember, every company has a story. 

The most successful ones spend every day telling the right one.  

I once counseled a 200-year-old university on how to best tell its story to a new generation. (Indeed, all this narrative guidance applies to colleges, associations, and nonprofits, too.) 

When we finished the work, every leader around the table described how they felt. 

One person said: “This is how we always wanted to talk about ourselves but never did.” 

Imagine that your own corporate narrative is that clear. Crisp. Compelling. 

And expressed exactly how your audiences need it.

How would it feel. 

Pretty good? 

Of course. 

That’s how you win.

LET’S GET STARTED 

Sharpen your corporate narrative with compelling clarity. Book a call with us at maslansky.com/connect.