Business,
Church or Organizational Histories
The traditional
view of history, whether it is about an individual, a nation,
a company, or an institution is to begin with a founding date
and then work methodically and predictably to the present.
Such an approach, while logical, loses most of us because
we cannot see or imagine today's highly evolved organization
from the vantage point of the organization's founding.
Change
is constant, and nowhere is it more evident than in celebrating
the past. Age alone is no indicator or determinant of an organization's
success. In every area of endeavor, new kids on the block
are leaving older, established businesses in the dust. It
isn't the number of years you have been around, but rather
the accomplishment those years represent.
It makes
sense, then, to start by first understanding what our clients
are doing to ensure their future Why not systematically work
back into the inventory of experience to draw a continuous
thread from yesterday to tomorrow? Today, people, organizations,
and businesses are becoming more interested in their past,
not only to preserve past memories and records, but to utilize
history - the stories of successes, victories, and initiatives
that accomplished success - as a means of creating a culture
that builds winners.
More and
more organizations are beginning to see their history as a
means to cultivate the present and create the future. Your
organization's heritage can be a powerful tool, but only if
historical images, artifacts and stories are freed to speak
for themselves. While records in most enterprises and organizations
collect dust, they could be assembled with elements from your
organization's history displayed in arrangements that range
from large-scale museums open to the public, to small, highly
focused exhibits in employee-only areas. Displays can be permanent
or they can be designed to travel from worksite to worksite,
sharing the pride and inspiration of your organization's heritage
at every stop along the way. The entire project - from conceptualization
and design to the creation of supporting text and collateral
materials - flows effortlessly and leads your viewers to the
conclusions you desire.
Our goal
is to help organizations create a living organizational memory
bank that can and will be used, not just shoved into a storage
room. We want to help organizations evaluate historical materials
within the context of issues important to their success now.
We want to help them consider emerging trends and anticipate
the types of information that will be valuable in the future.
We want
to help you create an accessible information resource, reflecting
your particular set of objectives. Publications become treasured
keepsakes long after their creation. While they celebrate
the past and chronicle the present, they must also herald
the future. We research, write and edit histories and photographic
essays. We use history by creatively integrating it into magazine
articles, speeches, news releases, event promotions materials,
anniversaries, annual reports, web sites and calendars.
Sadly,
most of an organization's history may never be recorded. Essential
heritage information is preserved only in the memories of
your employees and customers. And much of this most perishable
of commodities is being lost everyday. These precious stories
touch not only upon dramatic events in your organization's
past, but also on less obvious aspects that give color and
texture to your heritage: what it was like to work for your
company, the personality of memorable individuals, how your
business reacted to outside events that shape and define an
industry. This living history must be captured and preserved
or it will be lost forever.
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