Start with Why This book is writen by Simon Sinek, an English author. Two years ago I watched in my university a video about this spokesperson. It was a speech of him in TED talks. To be honest, I did not believe much of what he was communicating, or did not want to trust. But after a period of time I was recommended this book and as I did not have many choices I decided to give it a try. Nowadays I feel the book was worth to read. In Simon Sinek's opinion, there are two styles of leadership. One is through manipulation. The other one is about inspiration. In our society we remain too much on manipulations, which are used to engage customers. These selling techniques, although they work, only guarantee short-term success. They do not originate a sense of loyalty in our customers. Therefore after the sale, our competition will try to convince our customer, the same as we did. This way they push us to rely again on manipulations, otherwise the customer does not buy us anymore. So this becomes a spyrall-process, like smoking, which becomes addictive. The customers engaged through manipulations don't become definitive at all. There must be something else. As it is dated in one American survey, plenty of health problems (heart attacks, etc.) are caused due to business originated stress. This is a reality in the competent American society, as in many other nations of the world. In Simon Sinek's words: “The reality is, in today's world, manipulations are the norm. But there is an alternative.” The Why. The Why is something that the great majority of businesses lack. It has to be based on one believe. It cannot be based on money. The question for the company why is: what is your believe? For example, Apple's why: “We challenge the status quo” I will copy from the book this to show the example of how communicates
a normal company and the example of how does Apple: “A marketing message from Apple, if they were like everyone else, might sound like this: We make great computers. They're beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly. Wanna buy one? Let's look at that Apple example again and rewrite the example in the order Apple actually communicates. This time, the example starts with WHY. Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly. And we happen to make great computers. Wanna buy one?” In this last example Apple explains their “why” in the beginning, then their “how” and they end with the “what”. They start with their believe, which is their source of inspiration. This “why” happens to be inspirational too for their customers, because customers feel connected with it. This “why” entails an extra advantage in comparative relation with companies that start with the “what” or the “how”. The “why” is purely subjective, while the “how” and the “what” are not. And through it they link up with the limbic system of our brains. When our thoughts are connected to the limbic system, we experience a sensation which is not easy to translate into words. It is the subjective part of the brain, it is the area where we have our emotions, our feelings... It is sheer tacit knowledge. Therefore to explain what we really think is not easy. We might be agreed or not but we don't behave towards it with objectivity. The goal of the “why” is to arrive to this area of the brain, while the questions of “how” and “what” cannot. The purpose of “how” and “what” is more explicit and makes contact with the explicit parts of the brain.
It is a good idea to start a company from the Why. This enables us to attract more easily customers, due to the limbic connections that are in our mind, which are easier to catch if we sell from the why. Therefore it is easier to maintain them loyal. It facilitates us competing against promotions from other companies or price wars. Furthermore it allows us not to be copied because nobody will be able to steal our why. This way we live without all the stress that generates living in a high competition market. Companies which only work from the “what” or the “how” have to create an outstanding product to attract new masses or can propel it through manipulation techniques. But the use of the why enables us connecting with our customers not only because of our products (“what”) but because of our ideals or beliefs (“why”), so this is an extra advantage that facilitates our labour. The “why” is a tool for leadership too. Great leaders are the ones inspire from the “why”, they often remember their believe to their group. These are only some examples of companies which have communicated from the “why”: – The “why” of South American airlines was that the middle man in the society could afford to flight on an airplane, which in the 80's was very uncommon. Their success became apparent as this dream was made true. – For Microsoft at the time was that everybody should afford to have a computer. Bill Gates became the richest man in the world afterwards. – Wolskwagen's “why” is that cars should be made for the average man – For the Wright brothers (which will be latter discussed) the “why” was they could create a technology that would definitely change the world (while for Langley's team was only achievement of rewards, fame and capital) – Harley Davidson is a very interesting case. They are the reason why several people feel so deeply for a motorbike, some even tattoo themselves this company logo on their body. I recomend this video to understand what their believe is about:http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=oE8swB_O3mk
For anyone who wants to know more about Harley Davidson's philosophy and understands spanish, visit this blog where the
explanation is remarkable: http://caminosquenollevanaroma.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/harley-davidson-un-gritocivilizado-de-rebeldia-y-libertad/#comment-424
I would like to present the story about the first aviation machine, which is introduced in the book. It was made possible by two men who were brothers from the United States. While these two brothers were leading this process there was another group, lead by a distinguised Harvard proffesor, whose name is Samuel Pierpont Langley. This man was granted with a 50.000$ budget by the U.S. government (which was really lot of money at the time) with the purpose of creating a new technology that would change the world. All the hopes of creating a flying machine for the United States were relied on him. He selected a very high profile scientific team to create the first flight machine ever in life. The team was formed by prestigious investigators and privileged minds that came from the best universities in the USA. With the money they were given they purchased the finest materials. It was supposed to create an astounding work. At the same time there were the two men, who were brothers and who were raised up in normal families. Their passion for flying was so intense that they inspired a group of people from their village. They all were men without high degrees, not even college education and were not respected among the university atmosphere. They did not receive any subvention either. But these men, lead by Wright brothers were very good working with each other, were well inspired and shared a very common vision, which was to create an aviation machine. This was connected with their illusions. And they made it happen. In the other division, the renowned Harvard scientific team lead by Langley had not been able to create anything valuable. I think this shows when a team performs well or when it does not. Inspiration and good leadership is essential. The Harvard team was not able to produce the flight machine. Although they had chosen what in theory was the best team in the U.S. to do it (like Barcelona or Real Madrid when hiring players in sports in Spain), they were not able to accomplish that challenge. They were highly disciplined, but they did not operate efficiently as they did not inspire the right feelings to perform well as a team. As the writer conceives it, they were not able due to a lack of efficient leadership, something that did not lack the inexperienced guys
lead by Wright brothers. I will copy a phrase from the book to resume this: “Both the Wright brothers and Langley were highly motivated. Both had a strong work ethic. Both had keen scientific minds. They were pursuing exactly the same goal, but only the Wright brothers were able to inspire those around them and truly lead their team to develop a technology that would change the world. Only the Wright brothers started with Why”. From the other side, I found out the significance of authenticity. When the words of a salesman are veracious, when salesmen believe in what they are selling, then we have the ingredients to succeed. I copy this phrase of the book: “Ask the best salesmen what it takes to be a great salesman. They will always tell you that it helps when you really believe in the product you're selling. What does belief have to do with a sales job? Simple. When salesmen actually believe in the thing they are selling, then the words that come out of their mouths are authentic. When belief enters the equation, passion exudes from the salesman. It is this authenticity that produces the relationships upon which all the best sales organizations are based. Relationships also build trust. And with trust comes loyalty.” In conclusion I consider that the use of the “why” can be a very valuable in order to establish a deeper gap with the people who we communicate with. As it differs from our present assumptions about communication and marketing, companies and individuals that transmit their “why” first might take a meaningful advantage in our society.