FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Irene Majuk 212-903-8087/imajuk@amanet.org or Paul Smith (513-284-3714 /

paulsmith@cinci.rr.com)

“Paul Smith is...an amazing storyteller.”

–Chip Heath, co-author of the New York Times bestseller, Made to Stick

Storytelling Has Come of Age in the Business World...

Learn How to Maximize Its Usefulness and Unleash Its Power!

LEAD WITH A STORY

A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives the Captivate, Convince, and Inspire

From Armstrong International to National Car Rental to Dollar General, successful companies in
every sector have embraced the ancient art of storytelling. At Nike, all senior executives are
designated “corporate storytellers.” 3M has its own process for writing “strategic narratives.”
Kimberly-Clark holds seminars to teach its thirteen-step program for constructing stories and
structuring presentations using them. And Procter & Gamble has hired Hollywood movie
directors to teach its top executives storytelling techniques.

Clearly, storytelling has retaken its rightful place in the business world as a powerful leadership
tool. Want a happy ending? Anyone with the motivation can learn how to tell stories that touch,
teach, and motivate a department, team, or employee. In LEAD WITH A STORY: A Guide to
Crafting Business Narratives that Captivate, Convince, and Inspire (AMACOM; August 30,
2012; $24.95 Hardcover), Paul Smith demonstrates how to effectively use stories for a wide
range of leadership challenges—twenty-one of the toughest, to be precise. Drawing on his
experience as a corporate storyteller and leadership trainer, Smith not only helps leaders at all
levels tell other people’s stories with confidence and impact, but also offers thorough and
practical advice to get them started on writing engaging, instructive, and impactful stories of
their own.

Based on exclusive interviews with executives at dozens of companies around the world, LEAD
WITH A STORY presents over 100 short but powerful stories the reader can use to:

 Set goals and build commitment. Discover two different stories—one about a campaign
staffer for a losing state congressional candidate, the other about a heavyweight fighter
 turned fiercely competitive financial adviser—that vividly illustrate the payoff of
specific, measurable, daily goals and unambiguous criteria.
 Define customer service success and failure. Learn a surprising lesson about the value of
storytelling as well as exceptional customer care from the heartwarming story of a special
meatball sandwich that Pizza Hut delivered to a dying man, thanks to an accommodating
cook, but neglected to write down and share with its employees.
 Inspire innovation. Demonstrate out-of-the-box solutions to problems with the story of
how an Arkansas pediatrician’s patient strategy served as a model for increasing the
speed of a fledgling shopper marketing business, now known as Saatchi & Saatchi-X.
 Empower others. Give people permission to follow their instincts with the story of a CEO
who rehired an employee he had fired and gained not only a loyal worker but a future
member of his leadership team—at another company...and much more.
Interspersed throughout the chapters on tackling leadership challenges—and stories about
companies from Merrill-Lynch to Pizza Hut, from Kellogg’s to Dun & Bradstreet—readers will
find lessons on story-writing. Starting with a simple structure for a good business story, the
“how-to” chapters cover six elements essential for turning a good story into a great one:
metaphors, emotion, realism, surprise, style, and, last but far from least, how to recast your
audience into the story.

“Experience is the best teacher. A compelling story is a close second,” Smith declares. Filled
with ready-tell-stories waiting to be retold and packed with inspiration—plus a winning formula,
complimented by helpful tips and templates—for creating original stories, LEAD WITH A
STORY leads the way to becoming a master business storyteller and a leader who people will
listen to, with pleasure.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paul Smith is director of Consumer & Communications Research at The Procter & Gamble Company
and a highly rated leadership and communications trainer for P&G’s management training colleges. He is
also a lecturer on leadership and storytelling at Xavier University and a popular keynote speaker. Smith
holds an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in a
suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife and two sons. For more information on the author go to
www.LeadWithAStory.com.
Title: LEAD WITH A STORY
A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives that Captivate, Convince, and Inspire
Author: Paul Smith
Pub. Date: August 30, 2012
Price: $24.95 Hardcover
Pages: 288
ISBN: 978-0-8144-2030-0
For a review copy, call 212-903-8087 or fax 212-903-8083.
Visit AMACOM Online at http://www.amacombooks.org