Developing and executing a Corporate Narrative is one of the highest-leverage activities that an executive team can undertake. It creates context, clarity, and momentum for a business that accelerates progress toward its mission. It galvanizes and unifies leadership in a singular voice that drives performance, direction, and culture – setting the stage for prioritization, resource allocation, and change.
But what’s a Corporate Narrative, and how does it do all that?
Let’s start with just the word Narrative. I’m usually not a fan of using dictionary definitions, but in this case it’s just too perfect. Merriam-Webster defines Narrative as a way of presenting or understanding a… series of events that reflects and promotes a particular point of view or set of values.
So a Corporate Narrative is a way of presenting or understanding a… series of events that reflects and promotes a particular point of view or set of values – about how your business will succeed in the coming two to three years.
A Corporate Narrative describes the era that your business is currently in. (Many narratives actually give the era a name and a brand.) It establishes a significant milestone for growth and development, including clear differences from the organization as it currently operates. It also describes the major initiatives that leadership has defined to make sure the company achieves this milestone. Collectively, this is the series of events that your Narrative describes, promoting your view of a thriving, sustainable business.
The time frame of a Corporate Narrative – two to three years – is critical:
- It is enough time to make significant change and progress, as opposed to an annual planning cycle;
- It is not so far in the future to be inaccessible to leadership, employees, and investors;
- It acknowledges that circumstances change quickly, and Narratives inevitably need to be re-cast to remain relevant and provide effective leadership.
The Narrative should be ambitious, but rooted in the firm’s strategic assets and capabilities as well as the demonstrable opportunities it sees in the future. I studiously avoid using the word “Story” as a synonym for “Narrative,” because I don’t like the notion of fiction to bleed into the company’s view of its future.
The Narrative must create a clear mandate for change. There is plenty of room for more or less urgency in the tone, depending on specific business circumstances. But everyone who hears this narrative must understand that when the company achieves this next major milestone – i.e. at the end of the current era – it will be different in specific ways that are understood and specifically accounted for.
Once the Corporate Narrative is created, it has three primary purposes. First, it becomes the “talk track” of executive leadership as they engage both internal and external stakeholders (with appropriate levels of detail/specificity). This is what leadership talks about and works on.
Second, the Narrative must be used to drive execution through the company’s annual planning, budgeting, and performance management systems. Typically, a Narrative identifies 4-7 key change initiatives that are critical to achieving the overall milestone. These should be front-and-center as leadership defines goals, performance targets, and compensation programs over the life of the Narrative.
Third, the Narrative becomes the basis for quarterly reviews that assess its ongoing effectiveness in driving the business, as well as the progress the company is making toward the milestone destination.
Where do companies fall short in realizing the potential of the Corporate Narrative? First, they don’t create a singular expression. Second, they don’t leverage the 2-3 year time frame to drive change. Third, if they do create a Narrative, they don’t put it to use and it becomes the proverbial document on the shelf, gathering dust. Leading through Corporate Narrative is a discipline, and specific practices can be adopted by the leadership team to realize its value for the organization.
Is there a Corporate Narrative at your company? How was it developed, and how is it used?
Strategy, Creativity, and Leadership 