ABSTRACT
A sales executive in a global enterprise, in the oil and energy sector, selling complex solutions and services to other large companies told this in a meeting. He was deadly serious and staring me straight in the eyes. He believed every word. The sales team had been saying this to each other and anyone else who would listen for so long that they all just took it for the truth. I have heard similar statements in dozens of other companies. Corporations have their myths that have become corporate "truths" over the years. For the oil and energy company in question our job was to be myth busters. People also looked qualitatively and quantitatively at their social media presence. By comparison they fared pretty well with most of their competition in social media, but again that did not give any bragging rights, as the level of quality and strategy throughout the industry was poor.
