Jyoti Guptara – the “5 Premium Speakers Questions”
Jyoti Guptara is the master of storytelling.
Jyoti discovered his passion for writing at an early age. Together with his twin brother Suresh, he wrote the fantasy trilogy “Conspiracy of Calaspia” as a teenager. They began working on this fantasy epic at the age of eleven, and at 17 they became the world’s youngest bestselling authors.
After his successful career as a novelist, Jyoti Guptara increasingly focussed on storytelling in a business context. He only really discovered the value of storytelling in business when he worked as a fellow and writer-in-residence at a partner organisation of the United Nations. There he realised that stories play a powerful role in communication and relationship building. Guptara has summarised his knowledge and experience in his book “Business Storytelling from Hype to Hack”, which has established itself as a bestseller on Amazon.
His diverse experiences and extensive knowledge of storytelling have made him a sought-after speaker and consultant, both in the business world and in academia.
Jyoti Guptara in an interview:
1. What are the core subjects of your keynote speeches?
Business Storytelling for purpose, persuasion, and profit. Across internal and external corporate communications – from strategy and change to creativity and culture through leadership and sales. Because stories don’t just present your identity to the world. They shape it from the inside.
2. Which audiance or which branch do you reach with your speech?
Target groups: Managing directors, top managers, boards, sales managers, scientists and experts, cross-functional teams
Industries: Retail, Pharmaceuticals, Government, IT, Industry, Financial Services, Management Consultancy, Learning & Development, Executive Education
Any organization that wants to equip its workforce with the number one business skill – storytelling. Especially senior leaders, because they have the greatest need to improve their organisation’s direction and performance.
3. Are you a PREMIUM SPEAKER? Where do you get your insights from?
1. My bestseller ‘Business Storytelling from Hype to Hack’ condenses 25 years of experience so that anyone can easily apply narrative principles to their own situation. The book has been praised by top CEOs and management thinkers. But my favourite comment came from a lady who cut the queue of people waiting to get their book signed after my workshop, and breathlessly told me that my book had ‘changed her life’!
2. Being a full-time writer between the ages of 15 and 25 taught me to write and speak so that people want to listen. My bestselling fiction has been translated into multiple languages and won various recognitions. This is why alongside leaders also other storytellers, publishers, and agencies seek my advice.
3. I have given talks in front of Kofi Annan and Oscar winners – but also in slums and youth prisons. I grew up in Switzerland to British and Indian parents, so I benefit from three nationalities in addition to insights from travels to 40+ countries. Working with people across industries, age groups, functions, and countries has taught me to help others translate their messages across divides.
And I’m never done learning!
4. What will be in the future? Does «time» play an important role in your work?
Stories will never go out of fashion. They are literally how we think. That said, I am keen to be at the forefront of new technological developments, and have advised several deep tech startup founders. As Head of Story at Aumivi – ‘the real world metaverse’ – I help develop stories and gamification in augmented and mixed virtual reality.
Storytelling with technology will happen against the backdrop of, and fuel, these larger societal trends:
Generative Artificial Intelligence will mean anyone can ‘create’ (and fake) anything from behind a device. This will increase the need for trust and authenticity. We will see a rise of trusted, vetted communities, online and in-person. People who can communicate well in-person and build strong relationships will thrive.
Narrative Intelligence will emerge as the foremost leadership skill. Storytelling is still not considered a core management discipline. We will see business schools go from spending maybe half a day on story theory, to helping people actually apply storytelling to all the other areas of business.
The more advanced our technology gets, the greater the importance will be of our oldest communications technology – telling stories.
5. Tell us your life motto? What do you want to give your listeners to take with them?
“The best is yet to come!”
Though we are surrounded by bad news, I believe we can work together to make the world – and ourselves – better. This will take a lot of wisdom, humility and courage… and compelling stories. Storytelling is the quickest, cheapest and deepest way to influence. Stories are the roads we walk on.
“If we want a different destination, we have to change the story!”