Anecdote launches its new website

Posted by  Shawn Callahan —June 10, 2015
Filed in News

Just as we launch our next major revision of our website, it’s interesting to look back to the very first one we launched in 2004. We still thank our lucky stars that we started with a blog back then and had the energy to write posts almost every day. How was that possible? SEO wasn’t a thing in 2004 but Google was and we were rewarded with good search results for our blogging efforts which we still benefit from today.

New-Anecdote-Website

If you want to have a sneak peak at our evolving website look over the last 11 years check out these links to the Wayback Machine archive which has been taking snapshots of our site from day one. Our changing tagline gives me a chuckle.

One of the reasons we wanted to refresh our website was to better reflect the proposition we are offering. For example, it was important that we highlight our business partners who now deliver our programs all around the world. We constantly marvel at their professionalism, skill and energy.

We also wanted people to understand that we offered an approach to change that was human-centred and narrative based. Like all good things, it takes time to appreciate how things really work and as we experimented with methods and techniques, we discovered that a combination of three initiatives provided significant energy and direction to any change program. Internally we call it the magic triangle but as you can see on the home page we’ve call our approach story-driven change.

We really laboured over the look and feel for the site. Some wanted us to put more pictures of business people and corporate offices. The thinking was simple, those are your clients, global 1000 companies, make them feel comfortable. From the very start we wanted to put more humanity back into organisations and felt that pictures of people being relaxed together but also with a purpose, was the aspiration, the feeling we wanted to create. And of course the same people who are enjoying a cafe one day are wearing suits the next. We all have many identities which in the past we kept separate. Those days are well and truly over.

We also wanted to illustrate that we are a small yet global company. Again the world has changed. 20 years ago the very best people worked in large companies and large companies only hired other large companies. You would never get fired if you hired IBM, right? That’s been flipped on its head. The small operators now have the very best and large companies are engaging them for specialist help. At the same time large organisations need help across multiple places around the world, hence the need for small firms to have a global reach. The Anecdote network of business storytelling practitioners is now the largest and most dispersed that we know of, which has enabled us to help our global clients like no other.

Here’s just one small example. We recently helped a group of executives in China prepare to present their (quite astounding) progress at their worldwide headquarters in Paris. The first part was done remotely between New Zealand and China but then the executives wanted face to face coaching in Paris which we provided with our French business partner.

Please take a look around and if you have any thoughts you would like to share with us we would love to hear them. Just send us an email at people@anecdote.com or leave a comment.

About  Shawn Callahan

Shawn, author of Putting Stories to Work, is one of the world's leading business storytelling consultants. He helps executive teams find and tell the story of their strategy. When he is not working on strategy communication, Shawn is helping leaders find and tell business stories to engage, to influence and to inspire. Shawn works with Global 1000 companies including Shell, IBM, SAP, Bayer, Microsoft & Danone. Connect with Shawn on:

Comments

  1. Greg Stewart says:

    Hey Shawn, hey Mark. The site looks awesome, and is a great reflection of your strategy with business partners.
    On a personal level, it’s a pleasure to know you guys, and professionally, I think your work is really important, so the increased reach is a great thing.
    Congratulations.
    Greg

    1. Thanks Greg. Much appreciated.

  2. Leanne NIsbet says:

    The website is a gem. I love the visual impact, right up front. Colourful, busy and interesting. It tells a story and gets us ‘in’ – it makes us want to read on! It’s also great to have info about the team, both in Australia and globally. Seeing their faces and reading a little about each one, is engaging and so personable. Well done all 🙂

    Cheers

    Leanne

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