A company needs a corporate story like a ship needs a compass - an instrument that helps it plot its course and navigate to its destination. Furthermore, a company needs a story because people need stories to make sense of the world, their lives, and their work. After all, at the highest level a corporate story goes beyond communication and becomes an instrument of leadership. Then it captures and conveys an organization's identity, its hopes, and aspirations.

For example, in 2000, Narrativity worked with the Ministry of VROM (Spatial Planning, Housing & Enviroment) to shape their Corporate Story. At that time the ministry had lost political capital as a result of internal division and strife. The three business units were competing with one another, rather than collaborating together towards a common purpose. The Narrative Approach helped them to find common ground and to recognize that what unites them is stronger than what divides them. "Spatial intelligence", one of 7 intelligence forms, was one quality that all these people and departments shared. Although they had different purposes and projects, they thought the same way and had the same objective. We then fleshed out this "best quality" into an archetypal character and plot. Today they are united within a shared vision of Identity and Purpose, expressed in the simplest way: "We, VROM, are the Architect of the House of Holland and we try to make it a better place to live".

In a nutshell - it starts with discovering that one, unique thing, quality, or trait that represents the best a company is (not has - this is not about products or services, yet, but about identity). Who are you under pressure, in crisis, in adversity? What and who are you proud of? What unites rather then divides you? This is a journey of discovery and this phase I call "from sense to story".

The second phase is developing that nugget you find into a story. This involves fleshing out a heroic (archetypal) character with a mission (the plot). This phase I call from "story to script". Because a story is what you tell and a script deals with how you tell it.

Last but not least the story has to be told to a diversity of audiences, through a variety of media - each with their own needs and requirements. A speech to staff is different than a speech to workers than a speech to financial reporters - the story remains the same, but its form and shape depend on the telling. Another thing is translating the story to mass communication. A TV campaign has different requirements than a long copy ad. This phase I call from "script to performance".

"The ability to see our lives as stories rather than unrelated, random events increases the possibility for significant and purposeful action." Daniel Taylor, Tell me a Story

Our thanks to Ashraf for his innovative ideas and approaches. To learn more about his company, you can visit Narrativity

A chair creaks. The lights dim. Someone coughs. And then you are bombarded for an hour and a half by endless bullet points, fuzzy graphics, and swooping titles that fly at your head and stream across your peripheral vision.

A PowerPoint presentation is, hands down, the most misused piece of technology in business. The problem occurs when speakers are focused on cool whiz- bang things they can do, or with punching out a series of company-template instructions, and not on the message they are trying to communicate.

Clive Shepherd, an e-learning expert and colleague of Pam Burton, spoke on this topic in London this winter. In "Death by PowerPoint" he argued that people who choose to use PowerPoint need to see it as a visual tool, not an end in itself. (See his article, with attendant course, PowerPoint: the promise and the reality.)

That, you'll be pleased to know, means ditching most of the text - images are far more effective and memorable - and spending time on the stories you are going to tell verbally.

When preparing a talk, start with the base line - what do you want your audience to come away with from the meeting?

Nobody wants to be abused by technology when they're listening to a talk. Instead, take them back to the childhood glee of a gripping narrative. Telling a story combines education with entertainment, and there's no more effective method than that for keeping your audience intrigued and awake.

Let me lob a few words out at you: Jack Welch. Boing, Boing. Freakonomics. When you examine bestseller lists it is frequently the case that at least two or three entries will be business books. The Economist quotes one industry source's estimation that 8-10 million "business" books are sold each year.

Now many of these books are not very good, and soon drop off the lists into the trash can. But those that capture the imagination do so by combining personal experience with practical information. Publishing has increased in the last year by about 14%, according to a report by R.R. Bowker, but readers are looking for more than statistics; those with compelling stories are likely to rise to the top.

These are the kinds of stories that are featured in Pam Burton's forthcoming book, Global Buzz: Tips and Tales from an International Marketing Pro. Pam mixes marketing tips with lessons learned over the years to produce an entertaining and useful read.