The Corporate Story

A corporate story tells you what you do, how you stand out and, above all, why you exist as an organization. In this blog, I'll tell you exactly what a corporate story is, why it's important, how we make it and how to use it practically.

The corporate story: your story on one A4

The name says it all: a corporate story tells the company story. So it is a running text, not an enumeration and no headings about mission, vision and strategy. It's not about numbers, it's about people. It is a story, a story that affects people.

Corporate stories are developed in very different ways. Some agencies take a maximum of one paragraph, while others write entire reports. We believe that the end result should fit on one A4. This gives you the space to color in the story without getting bogged down in unnecessary details.

If you've read a good corporate story, you know a lot about the company:

• What drives people (why?)
• What the company has achieved and wants to achieve (what?)
• How the company behaves (how?)
• The character of the company (who?)

The corporate story: a consistent, accurate story

Indeed, Simon Sinek's Golden Circles are inside. Actually, we draw another circle around it. Why + how + what = who. Together, the overall picture of a company. Someone needs these elements to determine whether an organization, a product or a person is right for him or her. If so (and the story matches the product), a relationship can be established.

By capturing the story, you make sure everyone tells the same thing. In fact, a corporate story is a self-fulfilling prophecy. A company that consistently tells and lives the same story automatically gets the customers, partners and employees that match.

Sounds good, huh? Will we do it for you too? equally pull a corporate story out of our sleeves? Unfortunately, it's usually not that simple. In fact, it's about the identity, and you're not making it up, you're going to lookup. At effect group*, we have a nice process for that.

The corporate story: retrieving, analyzing, creating

As mentioned, we always develop a corporate story based on serious input. First, we will talk, preferably with (an average of) the entire company. So the management, employees from different departments and (if possible) even with customers and partners. After all, the personality of a company is largely determined by the people who work there, and what the company wants to convey does not always match the image that customers have of the company. We get the input in creative sessions, personal interviews or with a survey. Preferably all, of course. With our sessions, we collect information that you certainly didn't have before. Our creative exercises get people to associate. They step out of daily work and make new connections. It is precisely with those associations that we can get started. We sometimes say, “It's about the adjectives.” We also look at the corporate identity, current communication and the 'official' strategy. With all that input, we go into the loft.

We'll work out the why, how and what, and see if we can find one core (who). Of course, we will discuss in between whether we are on the right track. We give back the input, tell us what we noticed (what are the differences between the input we collected and the strategy?) and share our conclusions. I often see that there is still a gap between the stakeholders' current perception and the desired appearance. That's not bad at all. In fact, a corporate story must speak of ambition.

Is it true? Then we can finally do what we love most. Write, and then tell you (and later to employees) the organization's unique story. And then also propose a pay-off. It is always a magical moment, exciting and sometimes confronting. We turned your input into a story. The story

The story that tells who the company is, but certainly also where the company wants to grow towards. Everyone feels it's right, and it's so obvious. I always love seeing that the end result is so good that all the slides and explanations are no longer necessary. Actually, it's like a logo. All the preliminary work is important, but ultimately, the end result also 'works' without explanation.

Different forms of the corporate story

The literal translation of corporate story is business story. But there are more variants, with different functions:

Product story:

Focused on a specific product. After all, Heineken Pilsener's story is different from 0.0's, even though they come from the same company.

Employer story:

You guessed it, it is aimed at (potential) employees. After all, the company offers them a different product than the customers and partners.

Note: the corporate story, product story and employer story cannot differ too much. After all, it's still about the same organization. If all is well, all products that are sold match the identity, and you are also looking for people who fit in.

What can you do with a corporate story?

So, that story stands. And now? My advice is to first test and roll out the story internally. Because company = people. They're going to embrace the story and give it their own twist. Then you share it with partners, for example at an event.

Our customers seldom use their corporate story integrally in their communication. But you see the content and the feeling everywhere. For example, on the website (home, about us), in a vacancy text or in a brochure.

Do you work with suppliers for communication? Then your corporate story can be used even more widely. I use the corporate story at the start of each assignment. Does the wish really suit the customer or do we need to conclave? Later, I'll see if our work also fits the corporate story. The corporate story gives us direction: we get hit more often at once and the resources we create are perfectly in line with the style and strategy.

If we have a (re) develop a brand, so we always write the story first, and then we start thinking about name, pay-off and corporate identity.
For us, a corporate story is therefore the starting point for every communication assignment. New collaborations therefore often start with writing a (new) corporate story.

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