| Summary: | Stories are a bridge to help in delivering the message of change that people have went through in a clear and direct format. Stories speak of individuals or organisations facing situations, and how they handled them. As people learn from successes, failures and mistakes of others from the comfort of their seats, they feel safe to reassess their situation; this empowers them to learn how to face their past with some new resolve for the present. The dissertation identifies a total of six living books (Chip J. & John W.S. Jr, 2007). The term ‘living book’ is used here to refer to the documented performance of work, decision making, and maintaining of competitiveness of six industrialists: (1) Matsushita (1988) shared his story to inspire the young generation, and his life and management style could contribute ways to enhance the universal population’s standard of living. (2) Carnegie (1920) shared what he deemed had been important in his life journey: business career, family and his philanthropist causes. (3) Ford (1925) shared on how one’s commitment to technical and business advancement could help to lower costs with efficient production, transportation and storage, passing the savings to the public. (4) Firestone’s (1926) visionary idea of the tyre and innovative designs propelled him to becoming the mass manufacturer of tyres. By integrating the western and eastern values, (5) Morita’s (1987) showed how strategic business moves could be achieved. (6) Bessemer (1989) wrote to preserve the origins of inventions such that the next generation would be aware of their importance and existence.
The grounded theory method was used to provide a systemic approach in categorising, sorting and analysing data.
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