The business world is at an intriguing turning point. Artificial intelligence offers limitless content at no marginal cost, on the one hand. However, audiences get tired of fake authenticity and hollow messaging. A quiet revolution is emerging somewhere in between these extremes. Leaders are posing more challenging queries; not about how to grow more quickly, but about what growth really entails. They are prioritizing alignment over ambition, choosing substance over spectacle, and questioning whether success is truly meaningful without purpose.
This shift matters profoundly in regions experiencing rapid transformation, where cultural depth meets global aspiration, where ancient storytelling traditions collide with cutting-edge innovation. The leaders who thrive here understand something essential: the most enduring businesses are not built on tactics but on truth, not on campaigns but on coherence.
Dana Alhanbali embodies this evolution. As Founder of Bark & Berg, she operates at the intersection where strategy meets story, where business vision becomes cultural narrative. Her work transcends traditional creative services. She builds legacies, shapes IP, and helps leaders discover what they stand for before they decide what to say. A TEDx speaker, podcast host, and strategist with over 16 years in the industry, Dana has touched more than 150 brands across diverse sectors. Yet her most significant contribution may be this: she reminds us that the question is not how loud you can speak, but whether you have something worth saying.
The Unconventional Path
Career journeys make better stories when they zigzag. Dana’s certainly did. She entered the creative and communications industry as a designer, immersing herself in branding, strategy, advertising, and production. Her talents found fertile ground in Kuwait, where she co- founded Beattie + Dane, a creative firm that quickly rose to become one of the MENA region’s most recognized agencies. The accolades followed—recognition at Cannes Lions, honors at Dubai Lynx, and partnerships with the region’s most ambitious brands. She learned execution at scale, the discipline of delivery, and the intricate mechanics of building something from nothing.
Success arrived. Then came the reckoning.
Exiting a company forces uncomfortable questions, and confronting burnout strips away the comfortable narratives we tell ourselves about achievement. Dana found herself in that liminal space where professional accomplishment meets existential doubt. She realized something crucial: she had built exceptional brands, but what truly energized her was building meaning itself. The difference matters, as one is a service and the other is a calling.
Storytelling runs deep in Dana’s cultural heritage, shaping her upbringing, her worldview, and her instincts. This realization pulled her toward IP development, not as a product, but as a philosophy. Stories carry weight. They transmit values, preserve culture, and shape identity.
Dana recognized that the region needed more than advertising campaigns; it needed narrative infrastructure.
Bark & Berg emerged from this clarity. The transition was deliberate, almost surgical- a shift from traditional creative services toward intentional, strategic, narrative-driven work. Her podcast “Something to Consider” launched around this time, exploring entrepreneurship, communication, and culture with depth and nuance. The recognition came swiftly: Best Podcast for Social Change in 2024. Dana’s writing expanded, her speaking engagements multiplied, and each platform reinforced the others, creating an ecosystem where ideas could cross-pollinate and deepen.
Where Strategy Becomes Story
Bark & Berg operates with elegant duality. The studio maintains two distinct but complementary mandates, each reinforcing the other’s impact.
First, the strategic advisory work. Bark & Berg partners with founders, leaders, and organizations building platforms that outlast quarterly earnings reports. These clients understand that a brand is not a logo, culture is not perks, and legacy is not an accident. They come seeking clarity about identity, purpose, and position. Dana and her team guide them through deep discovery processes, asking questions that surface uncomfortable truths and liberating insights. The work demands vulnerability, requiring leaders to examine not just what they do, but why they exist and what difference that existence makes.
The methodology centers on alignment, and every engagement begins with purpose, audience, and long-term objectives clearly defined. From there, modular frameworks emerge, flexible enough to evolve and structured enough to guide. Growth happens deliberately and sustainably, with eyes fixed on enduring value rather than vanishing metrics. The studio describes this as “a creative team of strategists that support business leaders and C-suite executives on their mission to develop their businesses into thriving brands with empowered internal cultures that create change”. The phrasing matters: thriving, not surviving; empowered, not managed; and change, not maintenance.
Second, the IP development. Bark & Berg creates original content for television, film, and narrative-driven podcasts. The studio collaborates with writers, producers, and creators who bring strong perspectives, cultural literacy, and adaptive thinking. These are not vanity projects, but strategic bets on where value will accrue as content commoditizes. In early 2024, Bark & Berg launched its Writers’ Room. This initiative incubates original ideas, supports storytellers at various career stages, and develops IP designed for regional and global audiences. The timing is deliberate, as demand grows for authentic, culturally grounded narratives that can travel, and the Writers’ Room builds supply to meet that demand.
The studio’s tagline captures everything: “The Strategy is in the Story”. Narrative is not decoration applied after the strategy is complete; it is the foundation from which strategy emerges. Leaders who understand their story understand their position, and organizations that
can articulate their narrative can defend their relevance. The work Bark & Berg does starts with meaning and builds outward, ensuring that what gets created carries weight and lasts. Dana sees Bark & Berg becoming a regional hub for thought leadership and IP development, a place where strategy, culture, and creative execution converge. Whether shaping a founder’s narrative, building a brand’s positioning, or developing original stories for screen, the question remains constant: Does this matter, and will it endure?
Anticipating the Shift
Dana reads market signals with clarity. The next major transformation, she believes, centers on perspective-led differentiation. As artificial intelligence makes content production nearly frictionless, original thinking, cultural insight, and strategic coherence separate signal from noise. Perspective comes from lived experience, not generated prompts. Bark & Berg prepares by investing precisely where automation struggles- original IP, nuanced thought leadership, and narrative clarity rooted in cultural knowledge. These assets cannot be easily replicated or automated. They emerge from human understanding, from years spent observing patterns, and from wisdom earned through failure and reflection.
Leading with Intention
Dana’s leadership philosophy reflects her broader worldview. Gender diversity at Bark & Berg is not a program; it is an operational reality. The studio maintains inclusive hiring practices, offers flexible working models, and ensures equitable access to leadership and decision-making. Collaborations with founders and creatives across the region reinforce this culture organically. Accountability, integrity, and clarity are the values that propel everything.
Dana maintains high standards for accountability and delivery while placing a high priority on autonomy, psychological safety, and open communication. Focus, trust, and sustainable performance are all facilitated by the culture; these are regular routines, not goals. Balance, Dana believes, is dynamic, not static. During intense periods, she prioritizes structure, rest, and boundaries. Physical and mental well-being directly impact decision quality and leadership sustainability. Consistency, reflection, and clear boundaries have become essential habits. She reviews decisions regularly, refines priorities continuously, and steps back when necessary. Protecting focus and energy is not self-care; it is professional discipline.
The Road Ahead
Professionally, Dana focuses on expanding Bark & Berg’s influence in thought leadership and original IP projects while ensuring the work carries lasting relevance. She is currently writing a book that distills the insights, questions, and lessons from her leadership journey. This project represents another platform for exploring themes that define her work- purpose, narrative, cultural depth, and the inner work that building with integrity requires.
Personally, her goal centers on continued growth without compromising clarity, health, or alignment. This balance is not separate from her professional mission but foundational to it.
Sustainable leadership requires sustainable practices, and the belief shapes everything she creates. Dana offers a different model for success—one where meaning precedes metrics, where narrative coherence trumps viral moments, and where cultural depth matters more than superficial scale. Through Bark & Berg, she helps leaders build not just businesses but legacies. In doing so, she contributes to a fundamental shift in how value, relevance, and impact are understood. The region needs what she offers, and perhaps the world does too.
