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Simon Sinek says to “Start With Why”. He says that customers will naturally gravitate to businesses that have like interests. For example, Apple might want to make technology accessible to non-technical users. This “Why” applies to Macs, iPods, iPhones, and probably an eventual iCar. Customers who are non-technical, will tend to trust Apple because they want they same thing as Apple. They want Apple to make technology accessible to non-technical users.
His diagram goes from Why -> How -> What
After the “Why” is determined, the “How” is next. Apple started with computers. At the time, all computers were hard to use. Their “How” was mostly determined by circumstance and timing, but few would argue Jobs could have been innovative in any field. The “What” is the product. Originally, it was the Apple Computer. Later, it was the Macintosh, iPod, and so on. The actual products came last.
In Fastlane terminology, a product must have a USP (Unique Selling Proposition), and ideally a Brand. MJ specifically says that the market does not care what the marketer wants. This seems to be at odds with what Sinek says.
In Sinek’s analysis, he has many examples of businesses that had a “How” and “What”, but never had a “Why”, other than to “make money”. Lots of companies made digital MP3 players, then the iPod crushed all of them. Apple wanted to make MP3 players easy to use. The others wanted to cram as many features as they could in to their players. Remember the photo of Microsoft’s PC controller that had something like 30 buttons on it, compared to the Apple remote that had 4?
If I understand the two theories correctly, in “Start With Why?” the USP comes last, and in “Fastlane” it comes first. Perhaps MJ is combining the “Brand” in to the “Why”, more than I realize.
If I wanted to start a computer security business, I could make a long list of services and products I offered. I could meet with companies and tell them the “How” and “What” I had to offer. I might say that my business goal was “to provide cost-effective information security”. Or maybe “to provide the best information security service possible”. That sounds nice, but what if I said “I want to make computers safe for businesses”? That is a “Why” a customer would want to support. How I did it, would be secondary.
MJ does say to focus on helping others. That the money made is a byproduct of helping them. Ideally, en masse. He also advocates making a friction-less machine that will make you money at a potentially unlimited speed, which is also good advice. It seems like a marriage between these, if Fastlane is lacking it, is to come up with the “Why”, and let let the Fastlane provide the “How” and “What”.
So anyway, I was reading Sinek’s book, and saw MJ make a post about the market not carrying what you wanted - and while I think he is right in the short term, I think Sinek is right in the long term.
His diagram goes from Why -> How -> What
After the “Why” is determined, the “How” is next. Apple started with computers. At the time, all computers were hard to use. Their “How” was mostly determined by circumstance and timing, but few would argue Jobs could have been innovative in any field. The “What” is the product. Originally, it was the Apple Computer. Later, it was the Macintosh, iPod, and so on. The actual products came last.
In Fastlane terminology, a product must have a USP (Unique Selling Proposition), and ideally a Brand. MJ specifically says that the market does not care what the marketer wants. This seems to be at odds with what Sinek says.
In Sinek’s analysis, he has many examples of businesses that had a “How” and “What”, but never had a “Why”, other than to “make money”. Lots of companies made digital MP3 players, then the iPod crushed all of them. Apple wanted to make MP3 players easy to use. The others wanted to cram as many features as they could in to their players. Remember the photo of Microsoft’s PC controller that had something like 30 buttons on it, compared to the Apple remote that had 4?
If I understand the two theories correctly, in “Start With Why?” the USP comes last, and in “Fastlane” it comes first. Perhaps MJ is combining the “Brand” in to the “Why”, more than I realize.
If I wanted to start a computer security business, I could make a long list of services and products I offered. I could meet with companies and tell them the “How” and “What” I had to offer. I might say that my business goal was “to provide cost-effective information security”. Or maybe “to provide the best information security service possible”. That sounds nice, but what if I said “I want to make computers safe for businesses”? That is a “Why” a customer would want to support. How I did it, would be secondary.
MJ does say to focus on helping others. That the money made is a byproduct of helping them. Ideally, en masse. He also advocates making a friction-less machine that will make you money at a potentially unlimited speed, which is also good advice. It seems like a marriage between these, if Fastlane is lacking it, is to come up with the “Why”, and let let the Fastlane provide the “How” and “What”.
So anyway, I was reading Sinek’s book, and saw MJ make a post about the market not carrying what you wanted - and while I think he is right in the short term, I think Sinek is right in the long term.
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