About Business Stories
You often hear success (or failure) stories through business articles in the media, consultants, or your colleagues. Case studies are regularly used in formal and informal trainings. If you aren't skeptical about what you're told, you could commit money to a technique that won't work for your company, or mistakenly avoid a technique that would. Writers and speakers often misunderstand that two concepts being related to each other doesn't mean one caused the other, or fail to consider the unique circumstances that may have played a role in the outcome. Regarding each claim as to why a success or failure occurred, ask yourself whether there were:
- Other possible causes for the success than those the story suggests.
- Special circumstances in the company that allowed the technique to work there, or caused another they tried not to.
- Companies built on less-flashy but better-proven techniques less risky for you to adopt.
- Companies that succeeded despite using, or even because of using, a technique that caused a failure elsewhere.
- Other reasons the people quoted in the story focused on the techniques mentioned (public relations, taking undue credit, etc.).
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