If you don't, somebody else will disrupt you and you will miss the moment to transform your business. Digital is impacting every aspect of businesses in general. Not just how you go to market with your re-imagined offerings, but also in the new ways you have to rethink your operating model. Attention on delivering value to your customer through every means has become paramount. Businesses that have been producing products are realizing that service offerings to their customer

Stories are what make us human beings interesting. The stories are what will make us matter, long after we are gone. The compelling nature of the stories we tell is agnostic to what the story is about. Most of us have been story-tellers in some way or the other most of the time. Many have knowingly or unknowingly mastered the craft of story-telling. So how can we make a story compelling? We have many fundamental rules that make our story compelling: Make your story interestin

Needless to say movies of today are great mediums for story telling. The screenplay (script) of the movie is where the story is first told and it becomes the blueprint for the movie. The script-writer is who creates the narrative structure for the story telling that results in the script for the movie. “The reality is that the single most important thing contributed by the screen-writer is the story structure.” - William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the Pr

While the major studios (also called corporate studios) in the motion picture industry are releasing franchise productions with big bucks to release them, a small group of independent banner distributors (also called Indies) are releasing exceptional well done films with award season on their minds, often with success at these award ceremonies as well. These independent banners have established themselves as the film industry’s most forward-thinking distributors by releasing

Disruptive changes across industries are now so common in business that companies can no longer respond with individual, one-off business transformations. Instead, they need to implement ongoing, interdependent transformations across its business units and functions. Business leaders must prepare companies to thrive in a permanent state of change. Now what would that have to do with story telling. Truth be told, we know that rigorous story-telling across the organization has

Theme is considered to be the emotional meaning of the story. The movies’ thematic elements should connect to the audiences very soul; they should feel the themes, not just think about them. Theme is much more than the moral of the story, an intellectual premise, or a central idea. It is organic and dynamic arising from the emotional, psychological and spiritual life of a story. When executed well, the theme music in a movie only enhances that agenda of the theme even further

In movies, we see a visual of the story world which includes a complex and detailed web of elements that have story meaning. We create the story world with infinite detail, for it is the manifestation of the character that the story brings forth in its narrative. The story world comprises of the land (natural setting), the people (man-made spaces), technology (tools), and time (changes caused through the story time). For example, in the movie "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's

We know that every film that is ever made would want to reach the widest audience that is possible. However, for independent films at least, one has to plan on starting small to build the initial momentum through its core audience and interest groups. Engage directly with the initial group and the so called super-fans, who will drive the movie into outside communities and groups. Target specific consumer groups who are committed to the cause-driven theme of the movie: Movie d

There is no denying that we human beings are social creatures. Empathy is important for us to be social, so that we can understand how others might react to us or to certain situations they face. In a Harvard Business Review (HBR) article called “Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling’, the author talks about a neuro-chemical in our brain called Oxytocin which is responsible for that empathy we have for others. The author goes on to say that - Oxytocin is produced when we ar

Ever since, I can remember I have been fascinated, not only by great stories, but by how they have been told such that they connected deeply with my heart and mind. Storytelling as a craft, particularly in movies, had been of special interest to me through all my life as well. Storytelling for me took a completely amazing new perspective when my understanding of story-telling permeated into my over two decades of management consulting career. As a transformation consultant,