Evening at Cape Point on the tip of South Africa

While the business world is preoccupied with the global economic recovery, a mobile revolution is quietly reshaping the marketplace in the developing world. In Africa, mobile phones are providing access to communications for millions of people who’ve never had fixed communications let alone cell phones. I’ve written before about the impact that such ‘leapfrogging’ is having on African business.  Now, we’re beginning to see exciting and substantial commercial projects taking shape, particularly in the service sector.

By the numbers

To call this a ‘revolution’ is hardly hyperbole. Consider the scale of mobile industry’s growth in Africa. According to a recent report by the International Telecommunications Union, the number of mobile subscribers skyrocketed from 5% of Africa’s population in 2003 to over 30% by the end of 2008.  Today, some 400 million Africans have mobile phones — that’s 100 million more than in North America.

Since only a third of Africa’s billion people have handsets, there’s plenty of room for more growth ahead. But, the interesting story, I think, is how the mobile phone is already remodeling African economies and creating promising, new opportunities for businesses and individuals in the region.

Mobile phones are enabling rural and low income people to join the economy while creating a stable infrastructure for businesses and emerging consumer markets.  Mobile communications are making it possible for new services to develop and thrive.

At the junction of mobile and web

Africa’s mobile subscribers are using handsets to access services that consumers in developed markets typically get from the fixed internet. The junction of mobile and web is a green field for inventive engineers and entrepreneurs.

New, innovative mobile applications are being developed in sectors ranging from banking, agriculture and fishing, medical, education, to government and non-profits.  It seems that every week, we read about a novel way that mobile technology is being used to meet the consumer needs.

M-banking, as mobile-banking is known, is arguably Africa’s most successful mobile-enabled service sector so far. Last year, m-banking initiatives were launched in almost every country across the continent. As banks and mobile operators join forces to deliver m-banking programs, Visa and MasterCard are watching the sector closely hoping to ‘leapfrog’ into markets where no viable payment infrastructure currently exists.

Kenya’s Safaricom was one of the first mobile operators anywhere to roll out an m-banking program, M-Pesa. Originally it was used solely for money transfer but Kenyans are increasingly using M-Pesa to pay their utility bills.

Taking this a step further, m-banking is enabling another layer of services — known as ‘m-commerce’ — where goods and services can be bought, sold or traded. In remote regions where the fixed-line communications are thin or non-existent, m-commerce can enable buyers and sellers of goods and services to find each other.

What’s next?

As new land-based and submarine cable deployments slated for later this year make 3G widely available in many parts of Africa, we’re likely to see m-commerce grow which should mean more investment by the business community and, ultimately, more jobs for Africans and improvements in their quality of life.

Africa’s mobile revolution is bringing as many challenges as opportunities. Governments on the continent must keep pace with dynamic mobile economy by taking courageous steps to encourage outside business investments.   African governments must develop templates for working collaboratively with businesses to enable their citizens to enjoy the benefits of the mobile revolution.

One thing is clear: there’s no stopping the growth of the mobile industry in developing markets, especially in Africa. The mobile phone is helping to put the continent on a path toward greater economic sustainability.  I find it utterly fascinating to see how innovative businesses and imaginative people are harnessing the power of connectivity in Africa.

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As always, I’d love to know your perspective.

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Want more info?  Here’s an October ‘09 piece in the Guardian, “Africa Calling…” and a New York Times article from the same period.

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I’d written recently (”Out of Africa, Help for Haiti”) about an open-source tech platform developed in Kenya called Ushahidi which enables people in crisis-affected areas to text their location and make urgent requests or provide assistance for those needing it.  Ushahidi’s disaster relief system is being used in the aftermath of Haiti’s quake, and now it’s being used to provide vital disaster relief in Chile.

While every crisis presents a different set of challenges, the lessons that Ushahidi’s team learned in Haiti enabled them to customize the platform for Chile in a matter of hours.

My interest is in how technology made in developing regions can be used in other regions.  As in the case of Haiti and many other disaster-affected regions, a robust Kenyan tool is being used to relieve suffering in another hemisphere.  I think this story deserves a lot more attention.

Ushahidi-Chile is now requesting information on anything concerning building collapses, medical emergencies, vital communications, food and water distribution, or similar issues.  Interested parties can also notify Ushahidi volunteers in locations to information via Twitter by using the #chile or #terremotochile hashtags.

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Post-scrip: March 3, 2010 – Newsweek piece, ‘Ushahidi’ Technology Saves Lives in Haiti and Chile

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It’s been a week since the Port-au-Prince earthquake and images streaming in are helping us to grasp the region’s boundless misery and desperation. Hundreds of thousands have perished, and despite our best efforts, more will die and suffer for myriad reasons including the inability to deliver relief where it’s needed.

Despite the gut-wrenching news, it’s heartening to learn that determined, inventive people are finding ways to alleviate the suffering and, in some cases, save lives.

One of the more interesting stories is about an open-source project called Ushahidi which takes its name from the Swahili word for “testimony”.  The software, developed during the post-election violence in Kenya in 2008, enables text messages to be mapped by time and location.  Anyone with an internet connection, regardless of the device they use to access it, can send a text message, an image or an email. Ushahidi can also store data offline for later synchronization.

During its initial deployment in Kenya, Ushahidi was used to record hundreds of incidents of violence that might have otherwise gone undetected. It’s since been used to document incidents in the War in Gaza,the Vote Report India and Pak Voices (violence in Pakistan).  Ushahidi has also been used to track crime using its Atlanta Crime Maps.

But the application met its most demanding test after the earthquake in Haiti when the country’s mobile networks were down. Even after coverage was restored, the Ushahidi team realized that they needed a local SMS short code for the system to be widely accessible.

With a little help from our friends

Fortunately, Ushahidi has friends in high places. The team turned to Josh Nesbit, Co-Founder of FrontlineSMS:Medic, who used Twitter to reach a contact on the ground who was on his way to local mobile carrier DigiCel’s command center. With the help of the U.S. State Department, Ushahidi secured short code 4636 from DigiCel which is now being used to record the times, locations, and accounts of incidents.

Ushahidi updates its Haiti incident map with reports of medical emergencies, security threats, relief efforts and logistical bottlenecks.  It provides a filter for mapping earthquake survivors and deaths. Ushahidi also aggregates Tweets and streams from YouTube and Flickr, all of which can serve to orient first responders and relief workers while giving the rest of us a granular picture of what’s going on in the region.

Ushahidi teams in Kenya and Uganda are working around the clock to verify data from Haiti, and a university in Geneva, Switzerland is establishing a situation room there. Meanwhile, Ushahidi’s Boston team has approached Harvard, MIT and other institutions seeking volunteers to handle the massive volume of data pouring in.

As someone interested in how “home grown” technology is used in developing regions, this story is especially gratifying.  Ushahidi is about how inventive people in one developing country have created a simple but powerful “crowd-sourcing” tool to provide assistance in another hemisphere.

I’m concerned that “crisis fatigue” will set in, dampening world interest in supporting Haiti’s relief efforts.  By raising awareness about the on-going challenges in the region, we stand a chance of preventing the potential “disaster after the disaster”.

As this crisis evolves, new unforeseen challenges will arise. Let’s recognize that this is a long-haul operation. Perhaps stories like Ushahidi can serve to focus our attention on the enormous level of humanitarian assistance that’s needed in Haiti, and what we can do about it.

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Note: Ushahidi is currently seeking volunteers to process incoming SMS reports. Here are instructions to find out how you can help.

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Want more info about Ushahidi? Here is more on the 4636 SMS emergency code being used in Haiti.

And this is a Forbes piece (11-08), Citizen Voices:  “A Kenyan blogger found a way to get information from the crowd. Now she wants to take the idea to other parts of the world in trouble.”

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One of the more satisfying experiences at year’s end is reaching out to clients, partners and colleagues to thank them for their business and their stalwart support.  It’s even sweeter this time while reflecting on an entire decade going back to the early days of my business.

We come from different cultures and work backgrounds, but what binds us together is an abiding interest in bringing value to our customers, and clearing the hurdles that come with that mandate.  My mission has been to gain a deeper understanding of  what customers need and designing solutions for delivering it. My commitment to that mission is stronger than ever.

I can’t say for sure what’s next in business trends — no one can — and I’m not offering my top ten predictions. But, if past is prologue, we’ll need to be more imaginative, collaborative, and courageous than ever.  We can and we will, because we must.

Every project offers a fresh opportunity to do something that’s never been done before, and there’s nothing more thrilling that that.  I’m excited about new projects on the horizon waiting to be cracked.

Looking back, trips to developing regions like the sub-Sahara are reminders that we who are fortunate to be doing what we enjoy must recognize the steeper challenges faced by others. We’re obliged to devote a fair portion of our time and resources to reducing the suffering of others.

So, there’s much to be done.  Let’s get on with it…

I wish you a Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

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So, then…let us reflect together for a while, consider what matters, what really matters, and then in our wonderfully separate ways, fare forward together.  ~ James Hollis

It’s the season to reflect on a year that’s winding down before we turn the page. It feels right to look back on the year.  What interesting times these are!  Tom Friedman describes this as a period marked by the collision of two forces, the Great Recession and the Great Inflection – referring to the rise of cheap, plentiful technology.

The good news is that the economy is forcing us to adopt new tools more rapidly, accelerating business innovation. But, more tools bring more “noise”, and decibel levels are soaring. Noise distracts us from focusing on what’s important and we seem to be suffering from a collective case of “focus-deficit disorder”.  I think it’s hampering our performance.

I say this as an unrepentant geek who loves technology as much as anyone. Like so many of my peers, I have slavish attraction to small, shiny objects and the applications they run.  And for the most part, I can endure the noise they make, but I wonder about the impact all the noise is having.

Complaining about the incessant noise has become a national pastime. At a holiday party last week, a friend confided that she seldom has time for talking with her kids, let alone her clients.  “I’m on a treadmill,” she admitted. “And, I can’t slow it down long enough to hop off”.

Who among us can’t relate? At times, the noise is deafening.

We’ve coined metaphors like “signal-to-noise ratio” and “information overload”.   I’m reminded of Clay Shirky’s famous talk, “It’s Not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure”.  He’s right of course. We need better filters, but the root of the problem is far deeper than the tools can reach.

We’ve met the problem…

It might sound radical, but the noise isn’t the problem, it’s the excuse. To the extent that noise is bothersome, we’re the problem. We make choices — conscious or not — every minute of the day about where we place our attention.  We can choose to be distracted, or we can focus on what matters to the people whom we serve.  In any case, the choice is always ours to make.

If we avoid distractions, we can focus on crucial questions: What do our customers value, and do we have what it takes to build and deliver value better than our rivals?  That’s a tough one because if we’re honest, the answer is sometimes “no”.  And, if that’s the case, we have our work cut out.

These big questions can be daunting, so it’s understandable that we’d want to avoid them. It’s easier to let the distractions consume our time and soon we drift away from what’s important.

Here’s the thing: I think that if  we’re committed to what’s important, distractions can actually serve as helpful warnings.  When I’m annoyed by distractions, I’ll try to figure out why I’m choosing to be distracted.  If I’m being honest, I’ll notice that there’s something bigger and thornier that I’m avoiding.

It feels right to step back and reflect on where we’ve been before going forward.  But the time is always now to focus on the signal and not the noise.

The time is always now to rediscover what matters to the people whom we serve. The time is always now to figure out smarter ways to deliver our offerings. And, the time is always now to be accountable to the people we serve, and to the people who serve us.

So, before we turn the page, let’s take this moment to reflect on where we focused our attention during the last year.  Let’s be fiercely honest about it.  Let’s also know that it’s not too late to focus on what’s most important.

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As always, I’d love to know your perspective on this topic…

I’m indebted to my friends, Connie Jones and Harry S. Bradley, for their fierce and steadfast commitment to the truth.  This post is dedicated to them.

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It’s a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. -Lev Grossman, Time Magazine

The Urge to Connect

History shows that that when robust tools serve a powerful human drive, revolutionary changes occur. That’s happening now as social media enable people to satisfy their primal urge to connect with each another. Social media are ubiquitous, cheap, and accessible, and their widespread use is having a profound impact on business.

While the technology is grabbing the headlines, the more interesting story is how people around the world are using social media. They’re fulfilling their desire to connect with each other, forming communities in the process. The communities function like virtual beehives — amorphous, dynamic structures where members coalesce to share information.

Smart companies recognize the commercial value of communities. They treat community members more like stakeholders than consumers. Instead of broadcasting their messages at them, they engage followers in dialogue. In time, followers can be converted to evangelists.  In a hyper-connected world, evangelism carries messages fast and far, boosting the value of the brand.

Follow the Leaders…

I’ve lauded Zappos, Virgin America, and Comcast for their skillful community-building initiatives. Starbucks, WholeFoods, and BestBuy are also out in front with exemplary strategies. But, lately I’ve been impressed with JetBlue’s community-building strategy which can serve as a model for other companies.

The airline (@JetBlue) has been mastering the art of community-building on Twitter and, in the process, has grown its base of followers to almost 1.5 million.

Last August, the airline promoted its All-You-Can-Jet-Pass (for $599) to its community. To the company’s delight, the campaign went “viral” quickly, selling out earlier than expected after creating a buzz.

The campaign succeeded because JetBlue had already built a community of ardent followers where its message reverberated.  How did the company do it? The airline’s staff of rotating community managers engages followers in a manner reflective of the airline’s brand personality. Their tone is informal, conversational and hip — an attitude particularly suited for Twitter that traditional airlines can’t match.

The airline hasn’t been afraid to experiment in this space either. They’re learning about their community based on trying successive low-cost, low-risk campaigns.

To herald its new NYC-Barbados route, the airline announced a contest where participants take a photo in front of a New York landmark that incorporates both Barbados and JetBlue. The top 20 receive tickets to a concert featuring Rihanna, a popular Barbadian-American singer. JetBlue is counting on the community to spread the word.

So far, JetBlue’s social media strategy seems to be resonating with its followers. The size and influence of their community is substantial and growing rapidly. And, they’re harnessing the power of the hive.

Three Lessons from JetBlue

What can we learn from JetBlue’s success? Here are three things:

1) “Engage with” rather than “broadcast to” followers

2) Experiment to find out what works

3) Above all, stay focused on community-building

For me, social media stories always raise more questions: What can be done with new tools that couldn’t be done before? What else can we learn from leaders? And, how are they dealing with the new set of challenges that come with the territory?

One thing seems certain: for companies with the curiosity, imagination and the good sense to ease up on the reins-of-control, this is an interesting and promising space.

What do you think?  As always, I’d love to get your take on this post. What community-building “masters” would you cite and why?

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Want to learn more about this subject?

Read Clay Shirky’s book, Here Comes Everybody, about which he writes:  “… one of the things I most hope readers get out of it, is an excitement about how much experimentation is still possible, and how many new uses of our social tools are waiting to be invented.”

The book explores the broader context of communities including the sociological drivers. Here is a brief excerpt:

Human beings are social creatures—not occasionally or by accident but always. Sociability is one of our lives as both cause and effect. Society is not just the product of its individual members; it is also the product of its constituent groups.

The aggregate relations among individuals and groups, among individuals within groups, and among groups forms a network of astonishing complexity. We have always relied on group effort for survival; even before the invention of agriculture, hunting and gathering required coordinate work and division of labor. You can see an echo of our talent for sociability in the language we have for groups; like a real-world version of the mythical seventeen Eskimo words for snow, we use incredibly rich language in describing human association.

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To support his argument, he cites the case of PUR, a low-cost water purification system developed by Procter & Gamble. The product provides the obvious benefit of affordable clean water where the risks of drinking contaminated water are high. But curiously, PUR* achieved low market penetration rates in test markets.

Why would consumers reject a product as salient as PUR? The author contends that Western companies simply haven’t created demand among low income consumers. “Companies must create markets—new lifestyles—among poor consumers,” he insists. His prescription is that Western businesses need to do a better job “conditioning” low-income  people to be better consumers.  Really?

He argues that Western businesses ought to show people in emerging markets how enjoyable life would be if they were using products like PUR.  Companies, he says, ought to “make the idea of paying money for the products seem natural,” and “induce consumers to fit those goods into their long-held routines.”  Get a load of our stuff!

The fact is that consumers in developing markets usually know value when they see it. For example, businesses don’t have to create demand for mobile phones bought by the millions at the Bottom of the Pyramid—the fastest growing mobile market in the world. Consumers in developing markets can see how phones improve their lives.

Low-income consumers often buy mobile phones from street vendors, and they continually invent ways to squeeze more value from the devices than designers could have imagined. Customers use the devices to handle tasks like transferring money and finding markets for their goods that were never conceived by the phone’s developers or market researchers.

Jan Chipchase, a field researcher at Nokia who studies user behavior in developing markets observes that however cleverly products and go-to-market strategies are designed, “the street” figures out novel ways to distribute and use them.

So what does it take to sell products in developing markets? Listen to and carefully observe potential users. It makes sense to educate and inform emerging market consumers, but businesses have a lot to learn from them about creating value in their markets.

A more enlightened approach to serving the needs of potential consumers in emerging markets is to bring them into both the product design, communication and distribution processes.

I don’t mean to sound flip but next time a Western company comes up with a hot new product for the Bottom of the Pyramid, they should keep it out of the hands of marketing gurus. Instead,  they ought to consult vendors on on the street and figure out a way to share the revenue with them.  If street vendors can’t sell it, no one can.

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* P&G now sells PUR in developing markets at cost and is partnering with non-profit organizations to distribute the product through humanitarian relief networks.

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What do you think? As always, I’d love to hear your views…

Want more on this topic?

Check out INSEAD’s piece, Social Innovation — Creating Products for Those at the Bottom of the Pyramid. For a broader perspective, read C. K. Prahalad’s classic, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.

My related posts include Mobile Growth in Emerging Markets and various posts on emerging markets.

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Nearly every day, I work with colleagues who are eight or more time zones away. I’ve been doing this, with few interruptions, since the ‘80s. Back then, “geographically distributed” projects were run only by multinational corporations.  Times have changed.

Global markets have become more interdependent, and collaboration across borders is now commonplace, even at smaller companies.  Businesses know that they have to team up with companies in other regions to compete in the global “value creation” race*.

But a lot of companies struggle with this. In a June, 2009 survey by TMA World, 82% of respondents rated the performance of their company’s “global, virtual” teams as either ‘moderate’ or ‘poor’.  Yet nearly all of those surveyed said that global teams were ‘very important’ to their organizations.

The reason for this disconnect is that going global is a relatively new undertaking for lots of businesses. Many organizations simply haven’t “re-calibrated” for a global marketplace, and they don’t have all the pieces to support a successful global strategy.

“Expert” Advice?

There’s no shortage of advice from experts on how to improve cross-cultural business performance. Their recommendations — depending on what they’re selling — range from adopting more robust collaborative tools to receiving cross-cultural training.  Smart tools and interventions do have their place, but the missing piece at a lot of organizations is experienced talent, particularly at the leadership level.

Organizations interested in thriving on a global stage need leaders with high-level experience in regions where they’re operating, or at least in culturally similar markets.  This is particularly true for companies working in developing regions where business conditions are undergoing rapid change.

The Virtues of Seasoned Leaders

Leaders with relevant international business experience can bring dexterity to handling cultural differences in communications styles, approaches to completing tasks, and ways of handling conflict which can become magnified over the life of a project.

At a tactical (project) level, seasoned leaders with strong relational skills can recognize whether a breakdown in a project stems from a misunderstanding due to cross-cultural differences or from another source.  Seasoned leaders can take proactive steps to help their team to avoid the risks of cross-cultural misunderstanding.

In addition to interpersonal skills they’ve acquired, seasoned leaders can provide context to projects in developing regions where laws, commercial practices, and attitudes toward business are in flux.

Seasoned leaders can bring a rich perspective to multinational projects. Most of us who enjoy working in other markets are deeply interested in these regions. We become intimate with each country — its landscape, history, and politics. We devour every obscure book and report for the sheer joy of learning more, and we’re energized by putting the knowledge to practical use.

Lasting Value

Internationally-seasoned leaders can steer a steady course over the inevitable bumps and around the unexpected curves of cross-cultural projects.  The positive impact can extend across the organization long after the project or campaign has ended. They can help to shape their organization’s culture by passing on their knowledge to the next generation of leaders.

Courses in cross-cultural relations can inform your workers about handling cultural differences. But, there’s no substitute for having leaders who’ve managed high-level assignments in relevant foreign markets. My advice is this: Be sure to add international seasoning to the mix.

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As always, I’d love to hear your views.  What opportunities and challenges do you see in the global economy, and how do they affect you?

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* In their ‘08 book, The New Age of Innovation, C.K. Prahalad and M.S. Krishnan use the term R = G (Resources = Global) to describe collaboration across cultures as an imperative: “All firms will access resources from a wide variety of other big and small firms—a global ecosystem”. (I discussed the book here.)

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Want more info on this subject? Here are some recommendations from broad to narrow in focus:

I’d previously recommended Fareed Zakaria’s book, The Post-American World (W.W. Norton & Co., ‘08) which makes a compelling case for the rise of developing countries in an increasingly interconnected economy.

Parag Khanna’s book, The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (Random House, 2008), makes a compelling case for understanding the world from the standpoint of Second World countries. I reviewed Khanna’s book  here.

For a variety of books about doing business in cross-cultural settings, check out the resources at Intercultural Press.

INSEAD professor Horacio Falcao discusses how to avoid the pitfalls of cross-cultural negotiations featuring this short video on the subject.  (When do we underestimate vs. overestimate the impact of cross-cultural differences?)

Related post: International Rules of Engagement, April, 15, 2009, and various posts on Emerging Markets topics.

What resources would you recommend?

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Over the last few weeks, my colleagues and I presented value propositions to separate audiences in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Clients in each of these markets face unique challenges and opportunities to be sure. Our offerings addressed their different needs, but our approach is fundamentally the same everywhere.

Our work consists of three steps:

1)      Develop a better understanding of customer needs by getting closer to customers and engaging them wherever possible,

2)      Use customer insights to continually improve offerings,

3)      Deliver a customer experience that’s better than the rest.

The good news is that these steps apply to clients everywhere, despite cultural variations. The not-so-good news is that succeeding with these steps is almost impossible unless there is substantial buy-in at the highest level in an organization.

We’ve learned that it doesn’t pay to work with companies that aren’t “customer-centric,” no matter how attractive the opportunity appears on paper.

Let me restate the lesson. If the person or team that sets the tone for the organization doesn’t see the inherent value of improving the customer experience, there is little that our interventions can do to move the performance needle.

Putting it another way: the organization’s “champions” must know, at the time that we’re presenting our value proposition, that it pays to improve their customer experience.

This is our “smell test”.  And, it’s crucial to run this test early in the conversation with a client—the earlier, the better. When we encounter a prospect who doesn’t pass the test, the smartest move is to politely step away from the table.

The  opportunity costs of  choosing inappropriate assignments can sink a company.  Our organization thrives when we concentrate on assignments that improve the way our clients relate to their customers.

Let me be clear. We’re not looking to avoid tackling difficult problems. Working though vexing challenges keep us sharp;  they give us the confidence to set our sights higher.  Looking back, partnering with the “right clients” to solve daunting challenges have been our most satisfying and beneficial assignments.

Who are the “right clients”?

For us, the “right clients” – whether they’re in Baltimore, Brisbane or Berlin – know they’re in the business of serving people.  Whether they’re airlines or retailers, they know that winning the hearts and minds of their customers is the true test of a market leader.

Once we recognize that a client accepts this principle, our mission is clear: help them out-perform the competition.

That’s what we do.

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As always, I’d love know what you think.  How does your company choose which opportunities to pursue and which ones to avoid?  Have you made exceptions to your selection criteria?  If so, how did that work?

Related:

Want to know more about Opportunity Costs?  www.investorwords.com offers this definition:

“The cost of passing up the next best choice when making a decision. For example, if an asset such as capital is used for one purpose, the opportunity cost is the value of the next best purpose the asset could have been used for.

Opportunity cost analysis is an important part of a company’s decision-making processes, but is not treated as an actual cost in any financial statement.”

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“The formula is simple and it’s reduced to four words every kid in the world knows: Tell me a story. It’s that easy.” -Don Hewitt

Last week, Don Hewitt, founder and long-time producer of 60 Minutes, died.  He’ll be remembered, among other things, as an impresario who created one of TV’s most successful programs.  There’s a potent lesson for all of us in his “storyline”.

Hewitt’s vision and instincts culminated in a new, highly successful form of entertainment known as the “news magazine”. As important as that accomplishment is, his greatest feat may be his proving that story-telling is the key to success, not only in TV, but in every medium.  We, in business, have much to learn from Hewitt’s dogged pursuit of the story.

Before 60 Minutes came along in 1968, few people in the news business recognized, let alone harnessed, the power of story-telling to register with the audience.  “Hard news” was treated as serious and important, and it was distinct from lighter, but more popular programs.

Hewitt, aiming for high ratings, wanted to present news-based information that also resonated with viewers.  Like Shakespeare and Chekov, he understood that the shortest distance to an audience’s heart is through telling stories, especially about people.

On Sunday, 60 Minutes devoted its entire program to remembering and appreciating the man whose singular focus was “making the story better”.  It was an informative, touching tribute.  That program offers an object lesson for any of us who want to carry our message to a wider audience.

Making the Story Better

For 36 years, Hewitt ran 60 Minutes like an independent fiefdom within CBS. Every correspondent had his or her own producers who competed with one another to find and present material that mattered to viewers.  Hewitt pushed, cajoled, and corralled his staff to uncover, organize and present evocative stories.  And they did.

The correspondents didn’t focus on the issues; instead, they featured the people swept up by the issues. The most effective pieces involved people telling their own stories.

My favorite segments spotlight people convicted of crimes they didn’t commit.  Rather than merely recount what happened, the correspondents interview the subjects from their jail cells. They also talk with their family members, associates and accusers.  Each individual tells the story from their perspective. Over the course of the segment, a “narrative arc” emerges, and we, the audience, empathize with the subject. Typically, we want these hapless people vindicated.

That’s precisely the effect that Hewitt was determined to get.  He believed that well-crafted stories inspire audiences to feel differently and intensely — one way or another — about the subject. Turns out his beliefs are grounded in science.

Hard-wired for Stories

Stories are powerful because we’re “hard-wired” to respond to them. Psychologist Jerome Bruner said that kids as young as two years old, “understand the stories that their families tell them, and they start to tell their own stories, and in particular start to tell stories to themselves as part of their first efforts to make sense of their lives.”

Brain imaging now shows that people are highly stimulated when they experience a story.  In fact, individuals construct mental simulations as they experience and find meaning in stories.

We flock to films, theater, and novels because we respond deeply to their storyline.  The most successful fiction and non-fiction writers know this. Their stories answer the questions, “What happens to the hero, and why?”

To our detriment, many of us in business don’t fully appreciate the power of story-telling. Even our better reports — exacting and accurate — lack a storyline and fall short of capturing the reader’s imagination. Hence, we often fail to motivate the reader to take the action we desire.  Wasn’t our aim to move the reader to action?

Lots of books and blogs exhort us to tell stories. But, the story of Hewitt’s single-minded pursuit of telling the good story and the effect it has on audiences is far more persuasive. His story illustrates that it’s not enough to merely inform the audience to resonate. We ought to tell them a good story…

As always, I’d love to hear your views. What’s your story about story-telling?

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Want more information about story-telling?

Take a look at Seth Godin’s piece for Ode Magazine, “How to Tell a Great Story”. Or, read the book, Made to Stick- Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die… by Chip and Dan Heath.

Don Hewitt’s 2002 autobiography is Tell Me a Story.  It begins: “New Rochelle, New York, could have passed for a small town and did when George M. Cohan wrote about it and sang about it in the 1906 musical.”

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Several years ago, I discovered Laurence Gonzalez’s (’03) book, Deep Survival – Who Lives, Who Dies and Why about individuals  surviving “do or die” situations.  Recently, I glanced through it again thinking it might be helpful for business people grappling with the challenges of this economy.  I couldn’t put it down.  Now, I’m  convinced of its value for anyone going through any kind of crisis.

Gonzalez studied hundreds of survival stories and presents many of them in his book. He shares tales of people surviving harrowing crashes and others lost in the wilderness.  Fascinated by their travails, he ponders why some people make it, while others perish? What general lessons can we learn from how the survivors behaved?

Gonzalez finds that one of the key features “deep survivors” possess is the capacity to focus on “doing the next right thing”.  Instead of becoming overwrought, survivors accept what’s happening earlier in the process and focus on extricating themselves.  They reason, “Okay, I’m here. This is really happening. Now I’m going to do the next right thing…”

That principle seems straightforward, but grappling with reality during a crisis was harder for the non-survivors. Victims, overcome by fear, were less adept at accepting their situation.

Many victims are prone to hysteria, while others are immobilized. What differentiates “deep survivors” is their ability to convert their emotions to drive reasonable, helpful action.

Surprisingly, the unlikeliest people sometimes prevail while others who are better trained and equipped don’t. Gonzalez tells the story of a teenage girl, Juliane Koepcke, who was with 91 other passengers aboard a plane that went down in the Peruvian jungle.

Most of the others stayed by the plane thinking it was the right course of action. Isn’t that what we’re told to do in a situation like that? But many of the “rule followers” died waiting to be rescued.  Juliane made a plan to escape through the jungle and she stuck to her plan, eventually meeting up with three hunters who rescued her. Her salvation, according to Gonzalez, was an inner resource, her mindset.

Fear is universal among people in peril. But “deep survivors” like Juliane channel their apprehension into helpful steps.  Gonzalez cites this as one of his “12 rules of survival“.

Deep Survival is gripping despite its being peppered with lots of narrative “switchbacks”.  But, Gonzalez successfully conveys his thesis that it’s not what’s in our backpack that makes the difference, or even what’s in our minds.  It’s something even deeper that counts the most.

Managing a crisis successfully is mostly an inside game. This applies to enduring any kind of peril — being lost in the wilderness, facing a serious illness, or a managing a daunting business crisis. Sooner or later, many of us will likely face a catastrophe of some kind.  If we understand what it takes to produce a better outcome, we stand a better chance of improving our odds.

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