In 1986, Lockheed was competing for the most advanced fighter jet ever built. The program was classified top secret. Tom White was never allowed to show the aircraft or say a word about it. His task was to convince the Air Force Chief of Staff, members of Congress, and their constituents that Lockheed was the only company that could build the future.

He wrote and produced a dramatic film called The Spirit of Flight and built a surround-sound exhibition to show it in. When the Air Force Chief of Staff walked out, he had tears in his eyes. Lockheed won. The YF-22 became the F-22 Raptor.

It became his signature. Iridium raised a billion dollars to launch sixty-six satellites after Tom's special-effects experience toured the world with their team. DAF Trucks came out of receivership to become the best-selling transport vehicle in Europe.

Motorola, Philips, and Lockheed's space division hired him for the same reason: when brilliant engineers could not make investors understand the value of what they had built, Tom made them feel it.

Today Tom teaches what he practiced. As a professor at ArtCenter College of Design and founder of The Storytellers' Institute, he trains founders, executives, and students to find the story inside the technology and tell it well enough that people believe.

An award-winning industrial designer with an MBA, he has carried one conviction into boardrooms, exhibition halls, and classrooms: a great story, told well, is the most powerful tool in business.