Narrative

The management of a multinational has the capacity, and the awareness, to determine the value of a product, its importance inside the business, the strength of the brand, and where the investments should go.

Their core territory stays the same: planning, programming, procedure — everything else lives inside that frame.

This is their job, and they’re paid to do it. What follows are the career advances that come with it, the optimization of pay, benefits, stock plans — but it’s never a sure thing that all of it will happen inside the same company.

Anyone who’s never worked on the inside might wonder why a manager would leave a company if they’re doing well at the one that made them.

The first thing on their mind is never the money. It’s the career — the climb to the top.

People usually fall right when they think they’ve arrived, because money can’t cover every mistake forever, and the numbers can’t stay hidden forever either. That’s when the managerial guillotine comes down — inescapable.

But how does all of this fit with corporate narrative?

The people who run institutions like the CATHOLIC CHURCH, APPLE, L’ORÉAL, NIKE, MERCEDES — and others — understand this well: a product needs consumers, needs to generate profit, and has a limited shelf life. A narrative, on the other hand, is a story that needs no readers, because each person identifies with it on their own — and that’s exactly what makes it eternal.

No examples needed — they’re too obvious. No numbers needed either, because you can’t measure it. The effects are cognitive, and that’s what makes it unique.

Companies pay to occupy space inside web search queries, to sell their products. Narrative occupies the better real estate on the web — for free. At least the kind of narrative that’s recognized as having real value.

And here’s the part that hits hardest: imagine that somewhere inside Apple’s own narrative, someone decided to start promoting Nokia phones. What do you think would happen?

That’s exactly the moment when the shareholders’ guillotine drops — in under ten seconds — and starts cutting cleaner than a lawnmower. Because there’s no line separating the arrogant from the foolish: both think they’re winning, both think they’re playing the odds, the timing — inside a battle where they’re fighting completely alone, and nobody bothered to tell them.

This is narrative: the story of someone you never expected existed — but who is real.