Analysis of a Business Narrative - Essay Example

? ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS NARATIVES BY PRESENTED TO Analysis of Business Naratives Story telling is one of the oldest ways of transferring knowledge, wisdom and values in the society. The value of the narratives and the information conveyed in such narratives were treasured and passed through generations to maintain a certain culture that defined a community. In the current corporate world, stakeholders have realized the significance and importance of creating organizational narratives. The renewed interests in story telling in the corporate world has been driven by the realization of the importance of knowledge and that it would be impossible to utilize abstract knowledge in any analytical form (Dunning, 2005). There is renewed realization of the fact that organizations are continuously seeking a means of communication that synthesizes and not that which analyzes information (Sole & Wilson, 2004). Story telling offers an ideal answer to this quest, which explains the increasing use of narratives by many organizations today. Knowledge by itself serves no purpose to organizations. However it is by application that such knowledge becomes useful to an organization. Therefore, all stories in organizations have the basic intent to share knowledge, which helps in promoting effective actions in the behaviors of all the involved stakeholders or in achieving a specific task within the organization. One importance of narratives in organizations is in informing the clientele “who we really are” (Dunning, 2005). In this attempt, for the narrative to be effective, executives have to do something that may at first appear uncomfortable, which mostly involves talking about the failures involved and the down times that the company has experienced in coming to being (Dunning, 2005). Self-disclosure in narratives is one of the best ways to accomplish trust and to inspire others. For instance, in the narrative about Baidu invention, though the company does not narrate about their down times and failures, the narrative clearly indicates that the brand was formed with the Chinese people in mind and had specific tools that accommodated the diverse needs of the Chinese users. The company draws its identity from its intention to serve the Chinese clientele and thus was designed with this customer segment in mind. This is portrayed by the fact that the search engine recognizes 38 ways in which a Chinese can say I. Recognizing such user specific features defines a clear identity of the company in relation to its clientele. On the other hand, Google in its invention offers a captivating narrative of the failures and the downtimes that haunted the young company. For instance, BackRub was discontinued for taking a high bandwidth than necessary, and that the young Google Company had to start from a garage and not an office. Stories that disclose failure and hardships within a company in its years of operations have a paradoxical effect of instilling trust and encourage openness among its audience (Dunning, 2005). Google offers a simple story about its startup, which elicits both humor and confidence in all their operations. Such a story enhances confidence, courage and inspires others within the company and outside to be confident in their operations. Narratives in organizations do share values and norms. The norms and values are passed through different generations within the organization, and are derived from the organization’s past to describe its intended future (Sole & Wilson, 2004). Leadership theories empathize on the need to offer a robust context and vision of a firm. This objective is better accomplished using stories that have more emphasis on the strong qualities of the organization in the past; narratives place organizational qualities in future’s context, while at the same time helping in identifying possible future opportunities in an organization (Sole & Wilson, 2004). For instance, during Baidu’s design and launch, the detailed knowledge of Chinese language and culture was instrumental in designing a search engine that meets the needs of all the end users. This was because, through such detailed knowledge of Chinese market and their needs, the company designed and powered various community based products, which included Baidu PostBar. In other words, by recognizing the needs of the Chinese market, Baidu managed to innovate and expand to other services, suggesting that it is possible to create a great concept using the local conditions alone. On the other hand, the narration about Google implies the norms of innovation and endless possibilities in growth of these innovations. From starting as a humble search engine called BackRub at Stanford in 1995 to announcement of the first returns of about $25 million, the narrative brings out innovation as a norm in Google, and that growth in possibilities is the only value. The movement of Google’s offices from a garage where the first innovations sprouted to an office near Silicon Valley is also an important part of the narrative that shares Google’s norms and values. Silicon Valley is today known for ingenious innovations where technology has been redefined for the last one or two decades. Placing Google near Silicon Valley communicates the strong innovation culture in Google and ties these innovations in the same category with the Silicone Valley innovations. Stories are powerful tools to develop commitment and trust. In other words, through stories, it is possible to communicate the commitments and competences of oneself and that of others (Sole & Wilson, 2004). It is through telling one’s personal stories that one can bring out their commitment to any issues in addition to indicating the trust and willingness to act vulnerably to others. Stories about any organization have the potential to pass on information that encourages trustworthiness in the organization and its employees, important qualities that influence employee commitment. Google’s structured narrative on its development imparts trust in the company as a strong directional company that has managed to rise from a simple idea to a complex utility search tool over the last two decades. From Google’s narrative, it is possible to develop trust in the company’s products that it will deliver as indicated considering the rapid expansion and huge benefits that the company has managed to deliver in a short time. Google’s closeness to Silicone valley places the company at the hub of innovation, and users do trust the company to offer new and better utilities with time corresponding to its impressive growth. On the other hand, the strong link that has been established between Baidu narratives delivers strong trust between the Chinese users and the company that was designed in their culture and needs in mind. It is through trust that a company attracts huge clientele bases leading to growth over a short time. Google had managed to hit the $25 million mark less about three years since its launch. The trust that the Stanford users developed in the new company has today undergone some transformations where people and organizations have deeper trust in Google to offer knowledge sought and to innovative utilities based on the company’s ingenious innovations. Organizations are continuously using narratives as an effective tool for branding. In fact, in relation to marketing theories, Holt the L’Oreal marketing executing remarked that “Customers buy the product to experience (the) stories. The product is simply a conduit through which customers can experience the stories that the brand tells” (Holt 2004, 219). The narratives that a company tells determines outcome of the marking process. This explains the importance that narratives have in branding and many companies have adopted the narrative strategy to brand their images and their products in the market. Brand managers today are faced with an active task of creating, expounding and strategizing on continuous reinvention of the brand narrative, while at the same time observing the fact that the narratives reflect exactly what the company delivers to its customers (Denning, 2005). The two narratives by Google and Baidu reflect this branding through narratives. First, Google positions itself as a company where innovation is the backbone and opportunities are endless in the market. In its branding as a highly innovative company that responds to market needs, Google creates an impression of a young company that strategically positions itself to lead other search engines. Within a period of time, the company reinvented itself and repositioned its strategies on a rapid development path to what it is today. Currently, people use Google as a brand name not only in search engines but also in a wide range of services that the company offers to its customers. The company has created a strong brand name that imparts trust and confidence in its customers, guiding all its products and the best ways to deliver such products to customers. Similarly, Baidu has managed to attract a segmented market and create a strong brand name among the Chinese users. The search engine is currently the most used search engine in China and also offers a wide range of auxiliary services. The ability the company to deliver to its clients is strongly attached to its narrative as a company that saw a need among the Chinese users; using the hunting narratives, which are common among the Chinese, the company developed an excellent mechanism to enable users hunt for information in a large forest of available information. According to (Denning, 2005) a story will reside among the employees, in vendors and clients and even in customers, all having different stories based on their different experiences with the products offered by a company. Consequently, the stories that users of Google and Baidu have and continue to narrate to others in addition to the narratives from the organizations itself, they all have huge significance in creating a strong brand image, which is portrayed by Google today. Narratives have emerged as powerful toolsets for organizations to achieve more than just narrating their history. Research has established that consumers connect and communicate much better with organizations with properly created narratives attracting more customers than poorly created ones. Narratives allow customers to develop trustworthiness and value, they are a means of communicating to an organization, and they are a means to define the identity of an organization as well as powerful tools for branding. In other words, narratives connect an organization and its stakeholders at higher levels compared to other communication methods. This is because, organizations open up to the audience through narratives and allow end users to understand the organization better, which suggests that it is the best way to undertake branding in organizations. This explains the importance of narratives in branding as it involves opening up and communicating directly to customers. List of References Denning, S. 2005. A Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art & Discipline of Business Narrative, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Holt, D. 2004. How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Sole, D. & Wilson, G.D. 2004. Storytelling in Organizations: The power and traps of using stories to share knowledge in organizations. Harvard Graduate School Education. http://www.providersedge.com/docs/km_articles/storytelling_in_organizations.pdf Read More