‘Narrative’ a key CEO competence, says Scott Galloway

NYU Stern School of Business professor of marketing, Scott Galloway, explains why storytelling is more important than numbers for growth-seeking executives.

New York University Stern School of Business professor of marketing, Scott Galloway

Professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business, Scott Galloway, has said that “narrative has become more important than numbers” for chief executives.

Speaking at ADMA Global Forum, a conference attended by marketing and advertising leaders in August, Professor Galloway said: “It used to be one in four companies that went public on the NASDAQ was not profitable. And now it’s three in four. So the narrative sort of takes over in terms of importance in terms of the reception that company gets in the marketplace.

“The ultimate competence of any chief executive has become storytelling. And essentially, what you want to do is find a category that is overhyped, take advantage of that cheap capital and use that cheap capital to pull the future forward.

“And as an analyst, I think of myself as someone who can look at the data and say, ‘These are companies and industries that are over-hyped, and also ones that are under-hyped.’”

Professor Galloway said that “democratised investing”, such as stock trading apps and the virtual worlds that comprise the so-called “metaverse”, including the headset devices sold by the likes of Apple and Meta, were massively “overhyped”.

He said the reason metaverse devices don’t work is primitive: The headsets, which cover the eyes, inhibit basic senses such as peripheral vision and make them uncomfortable to use, and often nausea-inducing. “That is why billboards on highways work,” he said. He also pointed to industries ripe for growth, including healthcare, using the US as an example.

“The way to describe healthcare in the US, which is arguably the largest industry in the world, at about $4 trillion, is bad, but expensive. People are unsatisfied with it. So we’re already seeing early signals of disruption,” he said.

Those signs have come in the form of remote healthcare consultations with doctors, which have been rising since Covid made “telemedicine” consultations more common.

“I believe simply that the only way you can create a trillion-dollar company or a company even worth $100bn is to effectively build a time machine. And I think there’s opportunities to build a time machine in healthcare, just with remote healthcare.”

He also added for mental health, remote consultations can make services more accessible to individuals who are intimidated by doctors visits, or can’t afford to logistically get to a therapist‘s ­office.

“I think the biggest disruption if you will, at the biggest reshuffling of market capitalisation will happen with healthcare companies.”