Eudora Welty, American writer best known for her 1973 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Optimist’s Daughter, was a woman of huge intellect and daring. (Her application letter to the New Yorker in 1933 is worth a Google search – as a sample, this is how it starts: Gentlemen, I suppose you’d be more interested in […]
Behind every number is a story…
Recently, I had the pleasure of reading Aswath Damodaran’s Narrative and Numbers (Columbia Business School Publishing 2017). Right from the opening pages of this compelling book, NYU finance professor Damodaran makes it clear that numbers need narratives – and vice-versa. I couldn’t agree more! As I’ve stated in previous blog posts, it’s time corporations invested […]
Danger: Proceed with Maximum Curiosity
I recently came across a fantastic piece from the consistently wonderful – and generously free! – Brain Pickings weekly newsletter (BrainPickings.org) about the American educator Abraham Flexner. What got my attention was Flexner’s exploration (way back in 1939, no less) of our “dangerous tendency to forgo pure curiosity in favor of pragmatism.” Now, it must […]
Big data means big human stories
The term “big data” means different things to different people. Some of my clients have teams of people dedicated to analyzing it and some of my friends sit in fascination (usually with a coffee and other friends) wondering where it is all going. While big data on its own sounds rather intimidating, anyone who spends […]
Objective vs. Theme: both matter, but one will get you closer to results
The desire of companies to want to call an objective a theme is something I often encounter in my strategic storytelling work. At times they may appear similar, but the reality is, themes serve objectives much more powerfully than an objective will serve a theme. Objectives, to apply a simple definition learned from my boss […]