Adopting from the following great Simon Sinek quote , book named Start With Why..
“For values or guiding principles to be truly effective they have to be verbs. It’s not “integrity,” it’s “always do the right thing.” It’s not “innovation,” it’s “look at the problem from a different angle.” Articulating our values as verbs gives us a clear idea – we have a clear idea of how to act in any situation”
Adopted from the following quote of Simon Sinek from Start With Why..
“We are drawn to leaders and organizations that are good at communicating what they believe. Their ability to make us feel like we belong, to make us feel special, safe and not alone is part of what gives them the ability to inspire us.”
Seth Godin’s following quote explains why products that inherently communicate their WHY to the customer need less of advertising..
This is what Apple does as mentioned by Simon Sinek in his book Start With Why..
“This is marketing done right. Marketing where the marketer changes the product, not the ads.”
Simon Sinek in his book Start With Why mentions about a WHY which is the reason why a company exists.
Plain and simply the vision statement of an organization that brings the WHY alive..
Jim Collins in his book Good To Great mentions about the three circles and their intersection point which every great organization aims to reach to leave behind a legacy.
The three points that represent the three circles are:
The intersection point is where each great organization focuses on to frame the WHY of the organization in order to walk the talk..
Adopted from the lessons from Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why and Seth Godin’s great quotes..
The following great quote from Seth Godin is a lesson to all marketers round the world..
“People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic”
Look at the success of companies like Apple , Microsoft , SWA and you realize how the combination of a person who knew WHY and a person who knew HOW resulted in such an iconic organization.
Paul Allen had the HOW whereas Bill Gates had the WHY to create a PC industry and Microsoft came out as an industry icon.Had Gates not had the vision Paul Allen could not created his magic for Microsoft.
Same holds good for Apple.Steve Jobs had the WHY whereas Steve Wozniak knew HOW to translate the WHY into reality.
It is a proven fact that in any iconic organization the combination of a CEO who knew WHY and a COO who knew HOW has always been a deadly combination.
Adopted from Simon Sinek’s book the Infinite Game
The Idea Diffusion curve highlights the Innovators and early adopters as the ones who are not risk averse when it comes to trying out NEW products
These are ones who love experimenting and whose word of mouth truly matters
Thus a company who creates a new product should first try to impress and attract these two segments.These people by virtue of being subject matter experts spread word of mouth and in turn create loyal customers associated with a brand
All iconic companies have one eye on this curve to serve as a guiding star for customer loyalty
Adopted from Simon Sinek’s Start With Why
Many iconic organizations go through a phase when WHY goes fuzzy.
The WHY espoused by an iconic leader goes missing in the absence of an infinite minded successor whom focuses on WHAT instead of WHY.This is shown in the curve where the WHY plateaued after some time.
This manifests itself in terms of lack of growth, profit, inspiration
To revive the organization needs an iconic leader to assume control.
Steve Jobs taking over from John Sculley , Michael Dell from Kevin Rollins are some examples
Adopted from Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why
Wright Brothers as well all know invented the first airplane.
But if we look book at history we can find that Samuel Langley was more equipped than the Wright Brothers , yet could not achieve what the Wright Brothers did.
Langley had a passion for aeronautics and knew WHAT he needed to do.He did not have a CAUSE to champion and more than anything else fame , earning money was his driving motivation.There was no clear sense of WHY.
Contrast this with the Wright Brothers , they clearly knew WHY it was important to build the plane.Not a single person working with the Wright Brothers had college education.
They imagined the benefits to everyone else if they were successful , they had the clear sense of WHY.Rest as they say is history.
Adopted from Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why
The VISION Statement is the PUBLIC statement of the founder’s intent , WHY the company exists.
It is like the VISION of the future which does not exist now.
The MISSION statement is the description of the route or guiding principles , HOW the company intends to create the future.
In all iconic organizations be it Apple , SouthWest Airlines , CostCo there is a clear difference between these two statements on the basis of WHY and HOW respectively.
Adopted from Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why