Businesses come in all shapes and sizes, and in all manner of development. Some have a solid plan in place to assess their present status and future possibilities. Others are mid-stream—they need guidance but aren’t sure how to build the right team. Still other companies have just begun to carve out their niche and community of customers.
What binds all of these customers together? How can they search for commonalities? All, in order to find a permanent way forward, must establish a management team that’s cohesive and fulfills certain necessary roles. Where do they find inspiration to do that? There’s an unusual source from popular culture that bears considering: Star Wars.
If you look at the structure of the Star Wars “team,” its cast of characters seems to fulfill all the necessary roles for a successful company—from CEO to customers.
Take a founder, who must listen and maintain trust. That sounds very much like Luke Skywalker. A founder, of course, must be assisted by engineers who exhibit personality and resourcefulness—just like robot sidekick R2D2. For his gift at translating and persuasiveness—that’s marketing, right?—we need only turn to C3PO. Although in the movies he was a smuggler, in real life Han Solo—the sales expert—takes the risks and is demanding enough to demonstrate what sales leaders need.
Service is complementary to that, but different—much like Leia was to Han. She assembled a team that was gifted and worked toward a greater goal. Newcomers Rey and Finn are also part of a business diagram, with their skills at operations and pinch-hitting respectively helping businesses navigate the complex world of interconnected, global business and fill in the gaps as needed.
Sometimes business needs muscle—in a perfectly legal sense, of course. For that, we turn to character Chewbacca—he keeps things running no matter how intricate and complicated things get. We all need something to rally behind at work, too—a mascot. For that, the new Star Wars movie offers BB-8—adorable, personable, lovable.
Businesses also need people with money or, in the case of Star Wars, knowledge—to guide the rest of the team and prop them up when needed. Those investors are exemplified by Obi Wan and Yoda. And finally there are those innumerable, diverse, enthusiastic necessities—customers! For those, it’s Ewoks we need.
This engaging graphic courtesy of Salesforce Desk explains it all—the world of Star Wars as it relates to your business team.
