29 Sep The Importance of Brand Narratives
In this video, Mimi shares the 3 questions your brand’s narrative should answer, and how ABL’s narrative does: “ABL helps technology and healthcare leaders grow great companies so they can improve the world with their technology products and healthcare services.”
COMPLETE VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Have you ever wondered what you love best about your job?
Just the other day, our Member Ali Payani, CEO of digital marketing firm LookinLA, sent me an article in which he was featured, called “The Cumulative Power of Narratives…and Why They Matter.”
The point of the article was the importance of your brand’s narrative and message to connect with your customer’s emotions, to create a trusted community where your customers believe in you, no matter what.
Hi, I’m Mimi Grant, president of the ABL Organization.
Another deep thinker quoted in the “Power of Narratives” article, was Cole Baker Bagwell, the founder of Cool Audrey, who simplified the foundation to building successful brands with these “3 W’s: Who do we serve? What do we do? And Why does it matter?”
For years I’ve thought that ABL’s Mission, Vision, and Values statement could be summed up as “ABL helps technology and healthcare leaders grow great companies.”
But, I realized that really wasn’t enough – to truly walk in the footsteps of our founder, Walt Bauer. Back in 1983, even though he already had a PhD in Physics and Mathematics, and had founded Informatics General 21 years earlier, Walt was still looking to learn from others how he could make Informatics even more successful.
He was participating in a peer-mentoring group at the time, but he was frustrated that others in the Group frankly didn’t “get” his tech business.
About that time he was interviewed by two fellow PhDs, Jeff Weiss and Steve Panzer, who were researching what it took to be a successful tech entrepreneur in SOUTHERN California – out of the limelight of Silicon Valley. As they got to talking, they shared that they were also interviewing other Tech Entrepreneurs in Greater LA.
The next thing they knew, it was suggested that they get all of the interviewees together to share the findings of their research at a place that today is called the Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel. At that very meeting, the Southern California Technology Executives Network – SO/CAL/TEN – was born, with Walt Bauer as its Chairman and Steve and Jeff as the Group’s founding Facilitators.
The pillars upon which SO/CAL/TEN was built were that it would serve Tech CEOs, to help them help each other to grow great companies.
Even while Walt was growing Informatics to 2500 employees, and the fourth-largest software company in the world, he actively supported City of Hope, and served as a Board Member for the United Way, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, and was on LA’s Economic Advisory Panel.
In later years, Walt became the CEO of Delphi Information Systems, and supported SO/CAL/TEN in creating SEPARATE Round Tables for Healthcare CEOs – and to changing our name to ABL – the Adaptive Business Leaders Organization, in 1989.
Because, by that time, we had learned well: if you’re not an Adaptive Business Leader, you don’t get to stay one very long.
It’s been my reflection on ABL’s corporate narrative that’s caused me to enlarge it to:
“ABL helps technology and healthcare leaders grow great companies so they can improve the world with their technology products and healthcare services.”
Clearly that’s what I love best about my job: having the privilege of learning from healthcare and tech leaders who, like Walt and his companies, truly are making the world a better place.”
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