Why write a corporate history?
Every company and organisation is shaped by moments of vision, determination, inspiration, perseverance, courage, luck – moments that are then driven and carried forth by people…your people.
Corporate histories help you to tell your story beyond the facts and figures, and let’s face it, while a few people might remember your financial successes, many more will remember your story!
A corporate history can reinforce your core values, acknowledge your key people, foster trust and respect, celebrate your accomplishments, motivate your employees, build loyalty, and honour previous staff and board members.
As a result, your corporate history can expand your knowledge and understanding of the journey it took to get where you are today, and this in turn, can help forge a path toward tomorrow.
A corporate history can be used in your business plan, induction package, on your website, as a special gift, to mark an anniversary, to launch a new initiative, to provide training, or to celebrate your corporate citizenship and community involvement.
Your corporate history brings the human story of your journey to the fore and sets you apart from your competitors.
A Worded Life is a corporate storyteller, interested in telling the story of your company and its people.
What might be written in a corporate history?
• When and why your company was started.
• The broader context of the business.
• Overview of what the company does: services, products.
• A profile of the founders.
• The story of the people at a business.
• The pivotal decisions that were made.
• Turning points in your company’s life.
• Major successes, achievements and milestones and the importance of these
• Key technologies that were invented.
• Major achievements and turning points.
• Industry awards and certifications.
• The business model or methodologies.
• Corporate governance – how the company meets its legal requirements.
• How the business satisfies the needs of its stakeholders – customers, investors, employees, suppliers, communities.
• Social responsibility – how the business aligns its values and behaviour with the expectations of society as a whole.
• Corporate culture – outlook on staff development, OH&S, work environment.
• The mission statement, goals and importance of the business.
• Financial performance, including a summary of recent financial data.
• The most compelling, funning and inspirational stories throughout your company’s evolution.
• Interesting anecdotes from employees and customers.
Format options:
• Book
• Newsletter article
• Brochure
• Blog post
• Web page
• PowerPoint presentation
• Booklet
• Pinterest page
• A series of tweets
• Facebook entries.
How long does it take?
Some smaller projects take only 6 months to complete, whereas an extensive book project can take up to 18 months, depending on how complex the content is and how quickly you return questionnaires, arrange interviews, and send images, etc.
Costs:
Pricing is based on the complexity of the project, i.e. the number of interviews required, the number of photos included, the format required, the number of words or pages you want, the age of the company and amount of information available.
The amount of work required will also affect the price, e.g., you might already have some written material, you may wish to be part of the process, you might want to do some of the writing and research yourself, you might conduct the interviews yourself and provide A Worded Life with your typed notes, you may collect all the relevant documents and images yourself. Or, you may prefer that A Worded Life do all of this.
Before A Worded Life can adequately provide you with a quote, you need to outline your project. The following points are aimed at beginning to clarify the scope of your project:
• Why you want to do a corporate history and how many years will the history cover?
• What format would you like and what style of writing would you prefer, formal and academic, creative non-fiction?
• Who will your audience be and when do you need it completed?
• How will you use the finished product?
• Where will the information come from and who will provide what?
• Will images be included and how many words/pages will your corporate history be?
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