THE STORY OF YOUR BUSINESS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN MONEY

BOOK REVIEW: STORY DRIVEN

AUTHOR: BERNADETTE JIWA

AVAILABLE: Amazon

There are tons of books published annually. In the US alone it is estimated that up to a million new titles are published in a year. So the chance of finding the book that speaks to you right here, right now, is made that more difficult. 

Literally a one in a million chance.

“Story Driven” has been that book for me in recent days. Its catchy tag line—“You don’t need to compete when you know who you are,” made me want to not only look again but snap up a copy and see what this all meant.

Truth be told I didn’t get around to reading the book immediately. It took me a few weeks to get around to it, because I was attending to other books that had moved me. I only do books that move me, otherwise what is the point.

The book is based on the simple premise that companies that flounder are often those who lose their story, the reason they were set up, which often was not to make money but because the founders thought they could solve a problem they had identified. But as time goes on companies forget this and start competing for market share, increased profitability and enhanced brand awareness.

The author makes the distinction between the competition driven company, which is reactive to competitors and focused on winning, as opposed to story-driven companies, which are responsive to customers and pushed by a need to matter, are purpose driven, keen to live a mark on the constituencies that they serve.

“Great companies,” she says. “Have something in common, they don’t try to matter by winning. They win by mattering.”

We forget – or maybe we don’t know, that business success measured by profitability or growth or any other traditional metric is a byproduct of providing a good or service that is in demand and in a cost effective way.

In fact, Jiwa, who is a world renown authority on business philosophy, explains that what distinguishes two companies, even in the same industry, is their respective business philosophies. And this is irrespective of whether it is articulated or not.

She says being a story driven company is important because that is where culture starts, its philosophy and is emphatic that everything that happens to a company good or bad are a direct result of the business’ philosophy.

It makes sense. If you think about it, if one of the drivers of business success is differentiation how better to distinguish yourself from the competition if not by being your authentic self. And is that not a competitive advantage in itself, providing goods and services in a way that only you or your company can?

This inability to hold your story close to your chest is most probably the reason why many of our businesses cannot transcend a leadership generation. The inheritors of the family silver do not know the story and not emotionally attached to the culture and philosophy as set out by the founder.

If they have not served at the founder’s feet and were just jettisoned into the company at the top they really can’t appreciate the company’s story and therefore its raison d’etre.

A company’s story is what allows the founders to weather the usual upheavals of being in business – poor sales, shifting markets and even the incessant knocking of the tax man.

This fits in very well with past writings in this column.

That for instance there are only four reasons to go into business – to feed oneself, to pass on something to descendants, to sell the company and for philosophical reasons. And to a tee companies are more likely, to not only survive but thrive, the more they tend towards being set up for philosophical reasons on one side of the pendulum than to sustain the found on the other hand.

We are more likely to make progress once we believe in the significance of what we are doing, she writes.

It also speak to the lesson of professor John Kay in his book, Obliquity in which he makes the case that business success – profitability and growth is often arrived at without aiming at it directly, but by round about means, obliquely, in improving customer service and experience.

And the market is not stupid. It recognizes when a company stands for something and rewards it with attention, loyalty and of course an ever ringing till.

It is simply written. And just in case you think your business is small and not susceptible to such strategies, she has brief synopsises of dozens of companies both big and small (but all companies were once small companies) doing everything from counselling to manufacturing electric cars to show that this principles are universal and not only suited to manufacturing or services alone.

If you extrapolate this philosophy it can serve well in other enterprises – sports teams, schools and even governments.

The book is a must read for anyone trying to build anything of significance.