Ancient Myths and Modern SMEs

Abstract

The myths of the ancient world still resonate in modern minds; mythic figures and the stories that describe them still speak to us, often at an implicit, even subconscious, level. That valence, this paper argues, indicates that ancient myth stories and their characters have significant value for other modern, everyday activities, including not only the more obvious areas of popular film and writing or propaganda and PR, but also more everyday business processes and organisational planning. This study demonstrates how this might be achieved by describing the research activities and findings of a project run by the authors, which employed ancient myths to support organisational development, enabling different kinds of companies and organisations to craft their own business stories, and pro-actively employ story-telling to think about their futures. This paper explores how the insights generated by this project i) contribute an innovative addition to existing business tools; and ii) reveal the relevance to the modern business environment of a humanities training. They also iii) demonstrate how the practice of story-telling -and its aesthetics -becomes a technology of the plausible, crucial for deliberation and decision making, in a context in which that practice is entrained.