These are the most profound three words that relate to any business, regardless of size. This talk by Simon Sinek is genius and will, most likely, change the way you do business.
Of course, if it was easy to work out the “Why” it might not be quite such a fascinating watch, but once you’ve listened to this talk and heard Simon’s examples, (Apple, and indeed the Wright Brothers) you’re going to question yourself and ask your colleagues – “What, in fact, is our business purpose?”
We explored this question internally.
We’ve been building exhibitions for over 27 years, and initially our responses were as you’d expect:
- Because we’re good at what we do?
- Because we’re turning a good profit?
- Because this is what we know HOW to do?
We dug deeper.
We asked what these skills meant to our customers; we asked what made our customers come back year on year to work with us again; we asked what was our business purpose? We discussed how we have managed to sustain the business over the last 27 years. To overcome economic pressures, and continue to be successful in a saturated industry, where we feel the competition biting at our heels.
This wasn’t as easy as we hoped!
We then explored instances of the trusted relationships we continue to build within the industry. The relationships that we have relied on, nurtured, and that have underpinned our success. We discussed how we have developed these trusted environments and then we referred to the video again.
We had now entered the limbic system of thinking (according to Simon Sinek) and this changed our discussion entirely! Wikipedia explains that the limbic system supports a variety of functions including emotion, behaviour, motivation; in other words trigger points for decision making.
This is where our “why” became clear. We knew that what we do really well is build stands, but what we also do well, is build trust and loyalty with all of our customers and suppliers.
We become them, they become us, we hear their goals, we breathe their expectations, and we reach out to understand their experiential brand vision.
Then – we deliver it – brighter, cleaner, and with more impact than they ever imagined. Seeing our clients success, equals our success, and that is WHY we do what we do.
How about you?