CorEscent Group works with senior leaders on the challenge most mistake for a communications problem — and that costs them at the highest levels. Michael Klein has spent thirty years in the rooms where story determines whether strategy succeeds.
The Story
Thirty years in rooms where the story had to work.
A writer came in to pitch a new series. The network loved it. The deal was moving. I stopped it.
I was certain that what the writer thought they were selling and what the network thought they were buying were two different shows. Both parties were sure they agreed. I told them: two months from now, when the script is delivered, the network will be disappointed with what they got — and the writer will be disappointed with the reaction. They were talking about the same words. They were not talking about the same show.
I could hear it because I’d sat in both chairs. As a studio executive I developed stories and sold them; as a network executive I decided what went on the air. 350 episodes across multiple series taught me the same lesson in every room — two parties certain they agree is the most expensive gap there is, and it forms upstream, before anyone performs a word.
I spent the next eighteen years testing that insight in very different rooms. Nine years leading a state agency. Five years in client development at a Big Four accounting firm. Same failure, different words. I founded CorEscent Group because I kept seeing it everywhere I went.
The right strategy still loses — until the people who have to execute it can carry it in their own voice.
The Founding Belief
“CorEscent came from thirty years of watching the same failure in three different rooms. A writer and a network, both certain they agreed — talking about two different shows. A leader and an organization, both certain the strategy was clear — performing two different visions. The right strategy loses when the people who have to execute it were only ever handed the words, never asked to own them. That’s not a communications problem. It’s a leadership problem.”
— Michael Klein
The Credential
Three rooms. One lesson.
01
Network & Studio Television Executive
350 Episodes. Both sides of the table.
Spent years developing stories as a studio executive and deciding what went on the air as a network executive. Learning what makes an audience stay — and what makes them leave. Television is the most honest feedback mechanism in the world.
02
State Agency Director · 9 Years
Strategy under political pressure.
Building consensus across competing agendas. Moving skeptical audiences toward decisions they didn’t think they wanted to make. The most underrated leadership skill there is.
03
Client Development · Big Four
Earning trust with demanding buyers.
Five years learning how to build credibility and make a case to the most sophisticated, skeptical buyers in any room. The art of the story that closes.
04
Vistage Trained
Built to transfer these skills to others.
Not just a practitioner but a coach. Trained to elevate leadership presence and the communication skills that actually move people — at the senior level.
350
Episodes · Network & Studio Television
9
Years Leading a State Agency
5
Years in Big Four Client Development
30+
Years in High-Stakes Leadership
Ready to find out why?
Start with a Story Audit. Twenty minutes with Michael Klein. No pitch, no deck, no obligation. You will leave knowing exactly why your strategy isn’t reaching the people who execute it — and what to do about it.