I came across Simon Sinek book as a recommendation from my son when he was at university studying for a degree in entrepreneurship.

Jonathan during his second year at Westminster University commended the book to me and that I should read it. I therefore read it with interest.

I found the diagram on page 116 particularly interesting at the time. I was involved with an early-stage business who had developed a new product and was seeking to get it adopted within an industry which was very conservative and  resistant to change. Therefore, it was interesting to see the challenges reflected in the diagram showing how difficult it is to get people to adopt new innovations and it explained why the company was having such a challenging time.

Throughout the book there were repeated examples which resonated with my experience in business.

The idea contained within the book is much wider than the early adoption of new technology. The underline principle is in all businesses there is a connection between the WHY, HOW and WHAT within any business. Where these three things are congruent, they form a golden circle. This golden circle creates a momentum with in the business which is creates outstanding performance and financial results. The outstanding financial results, in particular since I am an accountant, excited me and encouraged me to read the book all the way to the end. I often come across companies that are not performing at their best, who have all the ingredients to be better than they are but are not so I was interested in Simon’s explanation for this unexpected situation that they had forgotten their WHY.

Every single company knows WHAT they do and most know HOW they do it but often it is the WHY that is not as clear to everyone within the business.

It is this mysterious why that is the reason for reading this book so avidly. By having a clearly stated WHY provides a business with its momentum, its ability to overcome obstacles, galvanise a wide range of individual people different backgrounds, different education achievements to come together and to be inspired to do something bigger than themselves.  

The WHY of your business is rooted in the past in the experience and the ups and downs which you have gone through which has forged the individuals in the leadership team of your company. It is this unique set of experiences which have caused your company’s founders to start the business in the first place. It is where the companies WHY is rooted.

It is usually easier for a company to communicate it’s WHAT and HOW but not as easy to clearly communicate, or even necessarily articulated the companies WHY even though it does exist. This is often rooted in that balance of capabilities within the founder or founders.  

I want to encourage you to find or rediscover the WHY in your company.

Read the book “Start with why” and think about the examples that Simon gives of the WHY of a range of different well known household named businesses. Simon has recorded several video’s on YouTube.

The video on “start of WHY” can be found at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ss78LfY3nE It is only 7 minutes long so will not take long to watch.

So do you know the WHY of your business? If not then I urge you to find it out.

If you like what I have written or like the book and video then please share it with your friends.