Shaping Brands Through Storytelling: Bianca Ghose

How fascinating would it be to be called a professional storyteller? Your job is to tell stories to people about your business. Stories that help them relate to your business idea. Above all, you tell all the facts and no fiction. What a fascinating job, indeed! And Bianca Ghose vouches for it.

Writer, marketer and a corporate storyteller for Wipro, Ghose is upset that for most of us “what we’re passionate about is not what we do for a living”. She finds this subject matter alarming because she connects with it on a very personal level. Ghose started out as a journalist in 2005 and worked with various news channels for 10 years. Her love for journalism was overpowered by her passion to state an opinion and speak up. Being neutral as a journalist meant that she could not express her thoughts. Hence, she started a blog.

Ghose’s blog was diverse with her opinions on a number of affairs. This blog provided a stepping stone to her love for storytelling which, later in life, became her designation. Currently a Chief Storyteller for Wipro, her job description includes influencing relations and leadership communications. She manages the Social Media team where they intend on telling the Wipro story in a new-age way.

What does storytelling have to do with building brands? Storytelling is a powerful tool. According to Ghose, “stories are like jell-o, everything around them gets moulded as per the stories”. How we tell the story of our brand is how the customers will perceive it. We control the image of our brand and storytelling is a great way to shape it.

Ghose’s unconventional way of building a brand image echoes the philosophy of Shiv Nadar Foundation where we do not believe that mainstream and conventional methods of education are enough. We are constantly adopting new-age methods of teaching, as well as encouraging our children to follow and excel in their fields of passion.

In the initial stages of the blog, Ghose became wiser when a close friend provided some feedback that stuck through the years and has now proven valuable for storytelling:

• Know Your Story: It is near impossible to tell a story without knowing your own. Understanding oneself is a necessary prerequisite.
• Authenticity: As per Ghose,”no matter how you package your story, if you’re not you, everyone will know”. It is absolutely necessary to try to be someone you’re not. We all have our own patterns of expression. Being pretentious would only hurt our integrity.
• Allow and Invite: You must always be open to co-creation. Not only does it benefit in the sharing of knowledge, it also widens your horizon with respect to new connections and improvement.

  The rags-to-riches story of J.K. Rowling serves as inspiration for Ghose. How the former weaved her own story into the best-selling Harry Potter novels is what leaves Ghose in awe. Stories have more power than we give them credit for. They have the ability to make us or destroy us. We just have to know how to shape ours into a brand.

  Shiv Nadar Foundation was built on the basis of one such story. Our founder Shiv Nadar founded the Shiv Nadar foundation as a part of creative philanthropy through which we intend on changing the stories and lives of countless children.

• Patience: All great stories took time. We need to be patient enough for ours to unfold.
• Confidence: Confidence is the key to everything. Having faith in ourselves and how our story will pan out is crucial.
• Curb the Ego: When was the last time being egotistical brought upon any good? Ego is a sense of self worth, while it is good to have, it is necessary to check on it every once in a while.