In Japan, karoshi means sudden death triggered by the physical or psychological symptoms of work. It is estimated that about 10,000 Japanese workers die of karoshi each year. Since 1992, courts in Japan have awarded substantial sums in compensation to the families of employees who have died as a consequence of stress-related illnesses. Similar awards have also been made in other countries. Stress is becoming recognised as the disease of the 21st century!

In Britain, it is estimated that at least 40 million working days are lost a week as a result of the effects of stress, costing the British economy about eight billion pounds a year.

Stress occurs when a situation is perceived as presenting a demand, which threatened to exceed the individual’s capabilities and resources for meeting it. A common misconception is that only people with highpowered jobs suffer from stress. This isn’t true. Stress also affects manual workers. Stress is also a perceived phenomenon. This means that one person may find a situation stressful whereas another may not. It very much depends upon personality factors and an individual’s ability to cope with a given situation.

The common causes of stress at work include the following: - An inability to cope with the quantity of work

- Role or goal ambiguity arising when employees aren’t clear as to what is expected of them

- Role conflict arising when employees are expected to fulfil incompatible demands

- Lack of control often caused by a lack of autonomy within a large corporate administrative machine

- When the job exceeds the employees’ intellectual capacity or, conversely, it doesn’t stretch them at all. In this instance, an incompatibility between employees’ potential and the actual requirements of a job can undermine their personal self-esteem.

The Power of Story

People love stories. Children love to hear and adults love to tell. Stories have the power to change people's lives for the better or for the worse. Stories is a way people express their feelings, share their experiences, explores and co-creates shared realities, builds rapport and relationships. Stories are the primary way where people can make sense of the world and their place in it. It is the only way where people connects and inter-connects. People learn best from stories. It can affect behaviour especially when the story strikes a chord among them. Stories can inspire and persuade and move people towards action, positive or negative. Stories are the fabric that binds people towards a common goal, vision and mission.



The same is true of brands.

A brand story gives meaning to who you are and what you do. It is the common language that connects and unites people in a common purpose, vision and mission within an enterprise. Your brand story is the common ground where the interests, desires, aspirations and hopes of your stakeholders can meet. Your brands story is the bridge from visions to achievements. It is the tool towards the Awareness, Alignment, Action and Adoption of your business programs by your employees. Therefore brand stories are special because they are strategic and they respond to the ever changing environment, changing times, changing customers and changing markets. They can grow and they build on themselves over time.

Your brand story is also what that connects you with the people you serve on the outside. It provides the reasoning with which your customers can conceive of to support their buying decisions. It is the "Why" that people buy. Therefore your brand story is what that drives your customers towards Awareness, Assurances, Alignment, Acceptance and Adoption of your products and services and that which ensure the repetition of the Adoption process — the virtuous cycle that produces growth and profitability.

Let's face it; innovation is what investors pay for. Innovation is the source of competitive advantage and profits because it reduces costs, raises productivity, improves products, and attracts customers. Both customers and businesses benefit from innovation, and when the business benefits so do investors.

Why is it that two companies can sell the same products or offer the same services, and even use the same marketing techniques and still get two completely different results?

The difference is the internal environment.

The thing that has the most significant impact on a company budget - but never shows up in a budget - is morale. If you have low morale, for every $1 you spend, you get about 25 cents of value. If you have high morale, for every $1 you spend, you get about $3 of value. Companies should pay much more attention to morale.

Positive employees impact customer satisfaction, loyalty, supply costs, turnover, sick days, project completion, quality and more. Positive employees treat the workplace with respect, managing their projects and employees as if they were their own.

Demoralized employees go out of there way to make you costs higher, your projects fail and your reputation in the marketplace suffer. They jump ship when the next best thing comes along and waste valuable training dollars.