Customer Reviews

Around The Corporate Campfire: "How Great Leaders Use Stories To Inspire Success"

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Storytelling in business is a subject that's been popping up in the business media, so this book is timely. Evelyn Clark makes a strong case for the importance of using stories if you're a leader who wants to get your point across. She demonstrates her point by telling stories about a lot of well-known companies and explaining how they use stories and why they believe in it. It's an easy book to read because each chapter is about a different company, so you can read just one at a time and come back to it several days or weeks later without losing the train of thought. The appendices include a checklist for evaluating your entire communication program and templates for developing your own stories so you can put the lessons to work. There's also data on several studies that confirm the value of storytelling in the workplace. I highly recommend Around the Corporate Campfire if you want other people to listen to you and remember what you said!

I chose this book because it was interesting and published recently so I thought a lot of the ideas in it would be modern. Communication is a field that requires up to date books and ideas that evolve as quickly as technology. I liked the fact that this book involved story telling, which is a relatively timeless communication technique. I thought that the contrast between the modern time it was written and one of the oldest means of entertainment would make for an interesting read.

Another intriguing quality of this book that I liked prior to reading it was the fact that it involved real life companies. What better way to teach about effective story telling and leadership success than from company leaders that have mastered the skill?

The book is filled with stories from well known multimillion dollar companies such as Nike, Costco, Kodak, Mary Kay, Southwest Airlines, and Medtronic among others. It is fascinating to learn the way that these companies use stories to inspire employee unity, consumer loyalty, and advertising. It seems that a theme throughout the book is that, regardless of what your company sells, there is one pathway to success and it is lined with stories. The stories range from touching (in a chapter titled Medtronic: Dad I Saved a Life Today) to entertaining (Nike: A Global Competitor Running on Waffle Soles). No matter what your future leadership role may be this book will definitely help you reach your goal.

After reading this book I thought that it was well written and organized. Each company has its own chapter and within this chapter Evelyn Clark describes at least one success story about the company's owners, employees, CEOs, or customers. I particularly liked the ease of understanding. I thought that she communicated her points well and offered a lot of insight into how to successfully master the art of story telling. A lot of the ideas she has in the book are things that make so much sense I could not believe I had not thought of them myself. I am a student and I can attest to the fact that I often remember lecture material better if the professor had a personal story that related to it.

Overall, this book was both entertaining and educational. I recommend this book to anyone that is a leader, wants to become a leader, or is interesting in learning about leadership techniques. I never considered how much stories affect our every day life. Stories have been being told long before there was written word or the internet and show no sign of going out of style. It is essential to learn how to use this type of communication for future success and this book is an excellent place to start.

"Stories play a major therapeutic role in life. As earthly sojourners in the 21st century we experience the outer world in society, organizations and communities as paradoxical, rapidly changing, and becoming more globally inter-dependent. This out world many times is at variance with our own inner world. And this is the therapeutic power of storytelling." ~David Dunning, Corporate Leadership Psychologist

Evelyn Clark works with many leaders who want to enhance creativity through storytelling. She also gives examples of the stories corporate leaders tell their employees. This gives insight into the philosophies of companies like Costco, Nike, Kodak, Mary Kay, FedEx and Southwest Airlines.

So, how can you strengthen your company with stories?

Employees need to understand the company's philosophy and the history. When leaders tell the stories of how a company came into existence or how a product changed lives, this gives meaning to going to work everyday. It is always helpful to know you are part of a greater plan, a company that is changing the world or at least making life better for people buying the products.

Evelyn Clark focuses on visionary leaders who use stories to create the future they desire. How was a track coach inspired by his wife's waffle iron? The story of Nike is rather intriguing and then the stories of how the company has influenced lives gets even more entertaining. The company puts stories at their corporate website to inspire and many stories can be told online.

You may find yourself gravitating to specific stories because you recognize the company or have an interest in the specific type of product a company is selling. The story of Kodak is more universal and if you have yet to see a Mary Kay car, then you may not be living in America. These are stories we can all relate to and Evelyn explains how to communicate through broadcast media or in print. Could you motivate your employees through a daily voice-mailbox message or would it be better to put the story at your website?

Around the Corporate Campfire is filled with stories to inspire success in your company. Even if you don't own a company, this book is entertaining reading and could give you some interesting material for conversations with friends, especially if they enjoy shopping at Costco, REI or wear Nike shoes. Reading the core values of REI gives insight into why some companies succeed and why core values are crucial to success.

~The Rebecca Review

This terrifically well-written book provides inspiration, above all. It will inspire you about the use of storytelling in corporations, to be sure. But it is equally inspiring as a description of corporations that succeed - not through Enron-style cleverness, but through adherence to deeply held values.

Each of the first 15 chapters (of the remaining two chapters, one discusses non-profits and the other is the book's wrap-up) covers a different corporation. In each, Clark gives a sense of how that company uses storytelling to propagate core company values.

Make no mistake: the approach that Clark describes isn't about adding a layer of story to an otherwise humdrum company. Instead, all these companies care deeply about their founding values and memorialize those values by telling stories about those values in action. The stories include oft-repeated stories about corporate founders, current stories about exemplary employees, and everything in-between.

The corporations described range from household names like 3M, Kodak and Nike to less well known business-to-business corporations like K/P (printing, marketing, fulfillment, etc.) and software developers WRQ. They range from service companies like Southwest Airlines to retailers like REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.). Indeed, one of the untrumpeted arguments of Clark's book is that, in gathering together 15 varied companies, she demonstrates that the story-values connection can benefit companies of all kinds.

If you're thinking, "Well, a company like Medtronic (therapeutic medical devices) can use storytelling. But it would never fly in our industry," then Clark's book is the best on the market for you. Read it, and the stories she tells will give you much needed perspectives on how you might apply Clark's stories-value combination in your corporation. For that alone, I give this book 5 stars.

To be sure, this is not a how-to. Turn to other books for practical advice about harvesting, creating, shaping and sharing your corporate stories. (That said, this book contains brief appendices to help you take a first step toward creating your own stories.)

Read this book for inspiration. Read it to prompt your own imagination. Read it if you have any desire to make your company not just profitable but also a place you can be proud to work.

This book is just a collection of "not so new" corporate stories ... but offers no real insight or valuable information as to the mechanics of creating or telling stories. I did not find any inspiration within this book.

Save your money. You can find the same type of stories on the web ... FOR FREE!

Given a new role at work as a Change Agent, I am pursuing different approaches to my job and helping people through change. I came across story telling as a tool for instilling and perpetuating corporate culture, which is a foundation required for effective change. This book provides great inspiration for how to utilize story telling to share corporate culture. In the selection of stories from multiple companies, I found lots of great tips on how to improve culture as well. I am recommending this book to our CEO and VPs, trusting they will also be inspired. This is a great introductory book to using storytelling in the corporate world; it both inspires and educates.

Eveyn Clark has written a wonderful book about corporate storytelling and in the process has told us a wonderful story. She has gathered us around in a corporate, global campfire circle and inspired, entertained, and taught us the value of storytelling. She gives us role models to follow and insights to understand why this is so important in today's business world. She gives guidance as to how to implement storytelling into our own corporate lives. A very important book in this digital world we live in.

"I believe this work is a `must read and understand' for all senior executives. Quite simply, most CEOs tell the world their most important assets are their people. Yet, what they most often discuss are their financials and their markets. This book is a wonderful review of companies relating to their employees through storytelling and becoming more successful as a result."