You don’t need to compete when you know who you are

“You don’t need to compete when you know who you are.”

Bernadette Jiwa, in her “Story-Driven” book.

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In my journey to discover what marketing is truly about, I read past and present books to understand better how we have got here. The reader can quickly notice the gap between marketing theory and practice.

Indeed, people practiced marketing first, then started to take notice of this behavior and developed the marketing science in the early 20th century. As the innovation cycles are gaining momentum, there is little time to appreciate any product in the market as it replaces a predecessor and is immediately followed by a successor.

I first heard of Bernadette Jiwa when I read “What is Marketing” by Seth Godin; she left a strong impression on him, so I looked up a YouTube video titled “5 Minute Life Lessons with Bernadette Jiwa”. I immediately understood what Seth saw in her; I can only describe her as what a genuinely good-hearted person can be with powerful story-telling capabilities.

I just finished reading “Story-Driven, “an excellent asset for executives and CEOs.

1.????Your company should have a clear sense of purpose and identity.

2.????Your company should be “story-driven,” not “competition-driven.”

These concepts can only be helpful if the head of the company, along with the executive team, believe in and practice them in their daily lives, especially in our line of business: Telecom, where a product life cycle is measured in months in its best cases, not to mention the extensive catalog of products among different platforms.

Telecom companies are usually “competition-driven,” which tends to have them more reactive and mainly focus on how to beat the competition and why not rack up profits.

As telecom operators are striving to become technology enablers, they need to develop a “story-driven” company that every employee can relate to and practice in their daily lives; without doing so, each employee can only focus on their immediate task at hand without seeing the complete picture of making the customers’ life a better one.

Executives need to hear honest feedback from a professional storyteller about their companies’ stories; it is easy to convince ourselves and our subordinates that our story line is the best, while the truth can’t be farther away. Having an independent unbiased opinion will set you on the path to success.

Is your company a “Story-driven” or “Competition-driven” one? What does it take to become genuinely “Story-driven” for your company if not?