Joseph Campbell, an American Writer on Mythology and Religion (press here), defines a Quest as a journey of discovery or transformation that has three parts (press here for more detailed summary). 

What are everyday examples of Quest? These three phases of call, transformation journey, and return.  are in just about every movie that Hollywood makes. Forrest, Gump, Groundhog Day, Field of Dreams, Ferris Beuller's Day Off, even The Lion King are each examples of the Hero's Journey.  The Star Wars episodes is the best example (press here). For more on how screen plays use the Quest and Journey sequence (press here).  

What is the relationship between quest and the strategy of the firm? Barry and Elmes (1997) argue that many businesses narrate and organize themselves around the Quest (press here for complete article).. 

Ordering & Plots
A subtle credibility technique consists of ordering strategic narratives according to familiar
plotlines: as with cinematic emulation, this associative approach helps deflect attention away from the narrative’s fictionality. Many strategic narratives seem to follow a simplified variation of either the epic Hero’s Journey (Campbell, 1973) or romanticist form (Jeffcutt, 1994). Within the epic form, the hero/company finds itself confronting a number of enemies and/or obstacles, and, should everyone in the company manage to pull together, the company will emerge victorious with increased market share, profits, and job security. Hopeful, happy endings are almost always explicitly or implicitly present. Strategies fashioned using the SWOT model (cf. Andrews, 1971) often have this nature: opportunities represent “the call", while threats become antagonists. As strengths are employed and weaknesses transformed, the protagonist becomes a hero.

Romanticist plots are enacted when the company is portrayed as recovering from a fall from grace, one stemming perhaps from excessive growth or divergence from the founder’s vision.  Many downsizing efforts appear to embody this form: “We’ve gotten awfully fat. We’ll battle our bulge, find our core self, and emerge a slimmer, wiser, more attractive company.”  Whereas the Hero’s Journey results in a new self/company, the romantic plot augers a return to or rediscovery of a purer self, one obscured perhaps, but there all along. As with the Hero’s Journey, an ascetic emphasis is often evident in the texts we have seen, with company stakeholders being asked to undergo hardship and perhaps penance of some sort.

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