Analogies “to be or not to be”

Leaders often use analogies to distill down complex situations. There are several tactical advantages for using analogies: 1) simplify 2) relatable 3) minimize fear of the unknown 4) reach 5) share a pov without sharing details. There are several types of analogies, the most popular are sports, movies/books and war analogies.

Sports analogies are inherently problematic for cross-border transactions. Popularity of sports and the acceptance of terminologies varies significantly by country. For example, using a badminton analogy might be good in South East Asia, but may not apply to the US.

War analogies, we at OTM (www.onthemarc.net) believe, are not good. Any war, by definition, has a winner and a loser. In most successful negotiations, win-win most likely will lead to long term value creation.

We are big on using humanistic analogies to make authentic connections. For example a common American football analogy is “get it into the end zone” implying arriving at a tangible result. A humanistic analogy would be “get to the end of the journey” or “arrive at the destination”.

The differences are subtle, but wrong analogies can lead to confusion.

Please reach out to the OTM (www.onthemarc.net) team. We would love to be part of your journey. 80% of our transactions are in the range of US$5 MM to US$25 MM.

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