Storytelling in business
The fine line between inspiration and manipulation Bharat Avalani spoke about storytelling and business in a TerraBiz Digital webinar By Abdullah Niazi
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lot of what we do here at Profit is storytelling. Of course, what we call the meat of the story are the facts - the numbers and words we gather and then analyse that make these stories important and why people read them. Our reporters make themselves a nuisance to CEOs and bank presidents, messaging and calling them incessantly, and they trawl through financial statements, and legal documents to make sure that the information our readers are getting is important and accurate. But after the reporters are done gathering and verifying the information, the process of actually writing the story begins. First the reporters themselves and then the editorial staff need to figure out how the information on
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hand needs to be conveyed to our readers. Will we make an emotional appeal or instead take on a more dramatic voice? Will we tell the story as a factual narration or a gripping tale? Our goal is usually to do the latter, particularly when we write one of our longer long-form featured pieces. A barrage of facts and numbers stretching over pages and pages would never keep the attention of our readers. That is why we try to stick to the style of writing popularised as narrative nonfiction. We do not merely want to set the facts straight for the record, we want to communicate the story that those facts tell. Which is why, perhaps, TerraBiz Digital’s webinar featuring Bharat Avalani was particularly relatable to Profit. Much like politics, the world of business is at the end of the day made up of humans. And while the ethos most businesses aspire to is cold and cutthroat - at the heart of all businesses is
human emotion. Every company in the world has a story, and how that story is spun can make or break a business. More than products, particularly in marketing, what we are doing is selling stories.
Inspiration and manipulation - the power of storytelling
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Malaysian expert in Brand Management, Consumer Insights, Media Strategy, Brand Activation, Market Development and Integrated Brand Communication, Avalani is also a Unilever veteran that has crisscrossed 69 countries (including Pakistan on numerous occasions) and comes with decades of experience. Despite his impressive track record in the corporate world, when asked what his profession is, Avalani
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