About Microsoft

Storytelling can be used in television ads or even in simple videos used on your website to aid with the new product launch. Storytelling can also be found in the philosophy of a company, i.e. in its company values posted on its corporate Website.

Let's take Microsoft for example. When you head to its corporate website, www.microsoft.com, and click on the "About Microsoft" tab you stumble upon its corporate values. Microsoft states that their mission is "to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential."

Microsoft is there to help. To help consumers meet their full potential. But, does this mission statement tell a story? I'm sure if we looked hard enough we could figure something out. Thankfully, a few lines down we are presented with Microsoft's values:

"As a company, and as individuals, we value integrity, honesty, openness, personal excellence, constructive self-criticism, continual self-improvement, and mutual respect. We are committed to our customers and partners and have a passion for technology. We take on big challenges, and pride ourselves on seeing them through. We hold ourselves accountable to our customers, shareholders, partners, and employees by honoring our commitments, providing results, and striving for the highest quality."

A company that lives by its values is a company that lives up to its story. In other words, a company's story is found in its values. Microsoft values it values since its values are a part of its valuable story. It's hiSTORY.

When you mention "story" to someone the first thing that comes to mind is "Once upon a time..." and "and they lived happily ever after." We can equate a company's values to "Once upon a time" or the start of a story.

Storytelling is something that starts with the values of a company so that they can reach their happily ever after.