"The metaphor is perhaps one of man's most fruitful potentialities. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him."
If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, or have seen me speak at a conference or corporate event, you probably know what I think about the various metaphors used in business (especially in the sales and marketing realm).
So I really got a kick out of a recent piece in the Smithsonian Magazine, Scratch that Metaphor - Why the corner office shouldn't be a glass menagerie. Here's the beginning:
In the business world, 800-pound gorillas run with the big dogs, swim with the sharks and occasionally find themselves up to their asses in alligators. And if they are not crazy like a fox, they can get caught like a deer in the headlights.
Yes, it's a jungle out there. Why else would H. Ross Perot have tormented the hapless, imperial CEO Roger Smith by declaring, "Revitalizing General Motors is like teaching an elephant to tap dance. You find the sensitive spots and start poking"? (Or did he say "lap dance"?) Why else would Warren Buffett lament corporate misgovernance by saying: "There is a tendency to put cocker spaniels on compensation committees, not Doberman pinschers"?
I don't mean to be a spoilsport. Businesspeople have a lot to learn from the animal world. But there are at least two problems here: one is that they trot out the same tired analogies over and over. Their companies spend millions developing iconic logos and otherwise polishing the corporate image, and then they go around prattling about lions, foxes and sharks. Predators ought to show a little more flair than that.
But what's worse is that they almost always get their animal behaviors wrong. So let's just dispense with a few myths right now:
Read the rest by clicking here.
Posted January 5, 2006
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Tom is timely, thought provoking and all about the new brand vision packaged as a Seinfeld stand up. I went to school on his ideas.
Jeff Taylor, Founder, Monster.com and CEO, Eons.
When Tom Asacker writes, I read. Opportunity Screams is the right message for the right time.
Tom Peters
Unfortunately, we Westerners aren't very well trained when it comes to thinking metaphorically.
(It's isn't just one our educational systems' greatest failures, it's also one of the most consistently overlooked.)
Directly or not, the ability to think metaphorically is the key to vital little things like insight, creativity, and innovation.
Cool post.
Posted by: olivier blanchard | January 05, 2006 at 10:16 PM
Agree 100% Tom
For a few years I have advocated replacing 'MBA' with 'MST' - Masters in Story Telling.
Telling a story is one of the most under-used skills of all managers. Long live the metaphor my friend - keep it up :-)
As you know one of the Chapters in my book is called "The Power of Story Telling"
Posted by: Trevor Gay | January 09, 2006 at 03:16 AM