International companies live and die based on their ability to communicate ideas. Why do Ogilvy, McCann and WPP have an open door to the Fortune 100? A “brand” is nothing more than an “impression” in the mind of a potential purchaser. Apple is “cool” because Steve Jobs made it cool. You might argue that Steve was a fine public speaker, an iconoclast, a visionary, a risk taker, a simplifier, an extremist, but probably not a sparkling middle manager. I would agree. It’s no coincidence that he took calligraphy classes and faniced Indian mysticism. Now, the core question: Do the people who buy Apply products today represent that bold, risky, leader personality or are they “followers” of fashion?
Details matter, a great deal. Businesses trade on the bottom line, but deals are won or lost on a perceived snub, or the wrong school tie. Email people from a google ID, they will usually reply within the day. Secretaries patch you right through to the “boss.” The same thing does not happen with start-ups, but you do get to “product test” a lot of bored gatekeepers.
Small talk makes a difference. Icebreaker exercises are about seeing people as people, not titles or labels; Jan from accounts, Mark from IT, that kind of stuff. An eye opening PMI training session shows how a room full of individuals take on “tribal” associations real fast. Project kick-offs between those who share a cultural understanding simply move faster. Hofstede wrote about that stuff for IBM in the 60s, but it is rebelliously anti-agenda today.
An Illusion of Universality
Everyone talks, writes emails, gives presentations. Because it’s universal, the assumption is that “good enough” is everywhere. The skill is treated like air; vital, but invisible until it’s missing. Yet college courses on informatics, semiotics, linguistics and philosophy devote lifetimes to the study of constructs, concepts and constraints. Ever read Derrida’s Of Grammatology or Cialdini’s “Pre-suasion“? There are plenty of layers beyond Steven R. Covey, Ted talks and Tony Robbins.
Soft Skill is too Yin
Companies love to measure outputs in hard numbers: lines of code, units sold, hours billed. Stomping, shouting and screaming are part of a show. Superb communication produces intangibles; clarity, morale, influence, persuasion. These don’t show up neatly on a quarterly spreadsheet, so budgets flow to what can be counted, but comprehends nought.
The Commodity Trap
Because everyone can write something, execs view it as commodity labor: “I would do it myself, but I don’t have the time.” A $30-an-hour copywriter looks “close enough” to a $300-an-hour strategist (on paper). Until the $300/hour dude reframes an entire concept in a single, simple, emotive idea. But, by that time your procurement team has already forced a “cheaper by the dozen” mindset and nine outsourced ladies are busy managing one baby shower.
Hidden Leverage
Superb communication scales influence. It makes a CEO credible, a product profitable, a terrible team tolerable. But effects are delayed. Businesses (especially quarterly driven ones), struggle to connect “that brilliant articulation” today with “a stronger market position” six months later. People are bad at valuing time-shifted returns, they lose track.
Cultural Minamilism
A final quirk: communication feels like magic. Persuasion, narrative, framing—done superbly, can change reality. Many executives both rely on this fact and fear it. They keep communicators close but underpaid, like court jesters who can tip kingdoms with a joke.
In short: businesses undervalue superb communication because it looks common, feels soft, gets mispriced as commodity labor, produces time-delayed leverage, and unnerves those in power. But the irony? Every market leader; from Apple to Tesla, to Patagonia, was built not on features, but on words.
Show me the money!
OK, how about 6 million dollars worth? The true story of a Belgian guy, called Niko, saving face for two global giants, by demonstrating what “customer service” really meant to the purchaser; the biggest engine manufacturer in the world.
