Who doesn’t like a good story? At the movies, the story, and plot line, is the essential driver that helps us gravitate towards selecting one film over the other. The same for web series and paperbacks, and possibly, every other mode of entertainment.
But have you ever wondered, every human being probably needs a story to stand apart from the crowd?
More so with business entrepreneurs and professionals, but literally everyone, as Sandeep Das’s captivating book ‘How Business Storytelling Works’ pans out. It is the No.1 skill you need to succeed in your professional lives amid all the noise, competition and massive technological disruption all around us. As Das himself says, his management teachers focused on logic, analytical skills and rigour. But as it turns out, a successful leader needs more than analysis — a product or brand needs to be accompanied by a powerful story for it to be successful in the marketplace.
Storytelling is indeed a crucial skill in contemporary business, but it has always been, as Das essays, pointing to the origin of history, of concepts that got humans working together for a common goal, be it religion or nationalism. What takes this paperback a step further is when he brings these principles closer home, suggesting how important they are for personality and vocation building, just as much as it is for a religion or a political party. Storytelling is not only for CEOs, it is for everyone, from a corporate professional to even a terrorist trying to create global havoc (his words, not ours)!
Das, being a columnist, guest speaker and YouTuber of course knows a thing or two about grabbing reader/viewer interest, and that comes through the simple, yet succinct, flow of the text — a self-help manual peppered with anecdotes may not exactly be groundbreaking, but it is indeed refreshing (and fun to read on) when the many examples stem from popular culture, right from cinema to OTT shows.
Das’s latest elevates itself from simply being an airport bookstore staple mainly due to its narrative ease — the chapters feel like a TED talk for dummies, with a smooth-paced, flowy ‘being-talked-to’ feel that is comfy, especially considering the many contemporary and PLU references that pepper virtually every other page. The fact that the insights and takeaways could well add value to your career or business, is indeed an extra bonus.
Book: How Business Storytelling Works
Author: Sandeep Das
Publisher: Penguin Business
Pages: 247
Price: Rs 399
