The musical Wicked has stayed culturally relevant for more than 20 years because it isn’t just a story about Oz — it’s a story about choices, systems, and the women navigating them. And quietly, it offers a few lessons that apply surprisingly well to how modern teams build, organize, and run their businesses.
Below are a few takeaways from Wicked that map beautifully to the work small businesses do every day, especially when it comes to processes, tools, and the systems that hold everything together.
In Wicked, the magic is dazzling — but the story only works because of the structure underneath: character arcs, orchestrations, motifs, and callbacks that make everything cohesive.
In business, the same is true.
The visible parts — the branding, the emails, the campaigns — only work when the underlying systems are organized, aligned, and thoughtfully constructed. Clean data, clear stages, and simple processes may not be glamorous, but they’re what make good work possible.
This is why frameworks like small, modular “bubbles” of work resonate: they allow teams to improve in digestible increments rather than overwhelming rebuilds. A little structure goes a long way.
One of the reasons Wicked endures is because it’s a story centered on two women shaping the world through intelligence, resilience, and their own moral compasses — not waiting for permission to lead.
Women-owned businesses today often operate with the same spirit: practical, resourceful, low-ego, and deeply aware of the real constraints small businesses face. They’re less interested in pomp and more interested in clarity, function, and results that actually matter.
That mindset tends to produce systems that are:
It’s Glinda’s polish and Elphaba’s substance — no theatrics required.
The show’s theme of transformation isn’t about a single dramatic moment; it’s about accumulated choices.
Systems work the same way.
Most businesses don’t need a total reinvention. They need consistent, manageable progress:
a cleaned-up field, a clarified stage in the pipeline, a single automated follow-up, a simplified dashboard.
This is why “bite-sized work” models (like bubbles, sprints, or micro-projects) tend to work so well for small teams. Instead of waiting for the perfect moment to overhaul everything, you make things better little by little — and suddenly the whole system works.
Wicked is powerful because its narrative, music, staging, and character development all support each other. When one thing changes, the others shift with it.
A business is no different.
Sales processes need to match marketing processes.
Automation should reflect real behaviors.
Data definitions should align between teams.
The magic isn’t in each tool or tactic — it’s in how they work together.
At the end of the show, the sentiment isn’t about spectacle or fame; it’s about impact.
The small ways two people shaped each other — and everyone connected to them.
The best business systems do something similar.
They make people’s work easier.
They create clarity.
They take stress off teams.
They free up time for the things that actually move a business forward.
The legacy isn’t the software or the structure itself — it’s what those systems enable for the people using them.
Wicked may be a story set in Oz, but its themes are universal: structure, clarity, alignment, small improvements, and women leading with competence and heart.
For women-owned businesses — and small teams in particular — those lessons are less musical theater and more everyday reality.
Because at the end of the day, the goal isn’t to cast spells or “defy gravity.”
It’s simply to build systems that make work easier, teams stronger, and growth more sustainable…
for good.