A business allegory uses a story or image to explain complex business concepts, strategies, or challenges in a simple and understandable way.

Primary Implication

Suppose you are struggling with seeing how you can own a profitable business with predictable cash flowing through it, you may benefit from reading a few business allegories. Each is written to create new insights from something you are familiar with to help you better see the connections to how businesses produce profits and manage cash.

Overview

An allegory is a literary device in which one object or event is used to describe or represent another. Allegories are characteristically a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning that can lead to new insights. Below are select business allegories that will help you see the relationship to business management practices and their role in creating profits and preserving cash.

The Allegory of the Profit Tree uses an apple tree to show the inner workings of a profitable business that equates the harvested apples of a tree to profits and the taproot to Owners’ Equity. A review of the different elements of a fruit tree will help you see how the different elements in a business work together.

The Allegory of the Orchard likens a successful business to an orchard and its owner. The latter had carefully planted and nourished multiple trees that had waxed old and began to decay. Through this allegory, the reader sees how an owner works with their management team to prevent their prized trees from dying.

The Allegory of the Puzzle Pieces is used to explain how small businesses become large. See how the typical approach to assembling a puzzle corresponds to how a business grows from small to large. Just as in the early phases of building a puzzle, only a small number of the pieces are critical to your success. As the puzzle comes together, more of the available puzzle pieces come into use until all puzzle pieces are put in their correct place. You will see how this same logic shapes the evolution of a small business into a large business.