A rough guide to the Ocean of Purpose and City of Cash

The Diary often reminisces about the happy, giddy days of the 1970s, when we all ran around in soft focus wearing home-made paisley flares from Clothkits.

Remember Puff the Magic Dragon? He lived by the sea. And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.

The Diary has no idea what inspired that bittersweet song, but wonders if Honah Lee and its associated territories could be found near the Wealth River Basin, the Sea of Creativity or any of the other places featured in the Business World Atlas.

This atlas, published in Holland, features maps of places like Terra Innova, Customerland and Technolopis. On page 44 there’s even a diagram of something called The Skunk Works, which is blessed with a “chaos laboratory”.

The authors, Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove, are behind other publications including Gravy Training, and they edited the Financial Times Handbook of Management. Crainer is Editorial Fellow at London Business School.

So although the Diary is a bit lost in the Foothills of Comprehension, it believes the authors when they say that the book and the associated concept of “CompanyMAP” aim to “create an imaginary landscape that visualises all processes of your organisation, using symbols, icons and other map-making tools.”

Disciples include companies like ING Bank. They say the maps are “an important visual tool to communicate a change process in our organisation.”

TBWA and KLM used the idea in the launch of the airline’s frequent-flyer programme. The map helped them “present the meaning of travelling, and the services we provide, in a creative and user-friendly way.”

Meanwhile, the Diary is thinking about a trip to the City of Me on the Land of Self Knowledge this summer.