Welcome to this week's seminar, which for once will focus on applications of cognitive semiotics, in the practical world of business communication. We have long emphasized the need for such research, but only few people in the field (like our colleagues at CBS in Copenhagen) have focused on it. Andrey will be presenting this seminar (which he says will have elements of a workshop) on zoom from Sofia. But those of you wish to join is in the "zoom room" H402 are welcome there as well.

In this seminar (workshop) I will present what I believe lies behind successful business storytelling, using figures of speech (metaphors), and image representations conveying the core values of the companies and building sustainable and engaging cultures that people want to be part of. I will illustrate with various mission statements, best-practices and campaigns that successfully communicate the company culture, focusing on the language the images that conveye the desired meaning. The business cases of 3 companies will be reviewed  - IKEA, Starbucks, and Airbnb - and how they succeeded in building sustainable and engaging company cultures.

Andrei Iliev is the co-founder and CEO of Leader Academy. He has been engaged in social entrepreneurship for more than 10 years. His academic experience spans a number of universities, including: Technical University in Sofia (Bachelor in Automation and IT),  Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" (Bachelor in Linguistics and Bulgarian Philology), 1-year at the University of Granada,  Spain (Russian Classic Literature and Slavic Languages), Aarhus University, Denmark (Masters in Cognitive Semiotics) and American University in Bulgaria (executive MBA). Andrey received a "Rising Star" scholarship from the American University for his contribution to Social Entrepreneurship. Andrey is currently a business consultant in building strong and engaging company cultures, and productive teams, and in finding, and developing TOP young talents in Bulgaria.