Eternal optimist Simon Sinek is out with another book on his 'Why' mission for individuals and his belief that businesses can also benefit. We find out its relevance for The Boardroom.
It's amazing how everyone wants to create their own IP out of the management books, introducing systems and apps to help you keep track of the outputs of your reading. While it's great that authors are becoming mini management improvement coaches and providing us the tools to be successful, it's important for us to understand where they stand and how we can benefit from their advice. With some books, you keep them by your study table because they're invaluable and your actively practising their tenets. With other books, you delve in once in a while to re-visit an issue or framework that you're working on. And then there's books like Simon Sinek's 'Find Your Why'.
Sinek's book is a follow-up to his best-seller 'Start With Why', spurred by his belief that corporations would benefit if people liked why they sold such products or services. Like the title suggests, it's a complete tool-kit to help individuals or teams figure this out and then implement it as the cornerstone of strategy. Halfway after reading it though, a realization dawns that there's only so much you can spend on 'why' and it's mind-boggling how people would have the time to really devote to this.
Consumers buy most consumer goods because something fulfills an intrinsic need or a want. It's difficult to fulfill this by letting your 'why' get in the way of 'what' you're selling. This is exacerbated by our swipe culture where audiences are treated like numbers in a performance-based digital marketing world where it's all about conversions. Some categories, like fashion, are fast-moving and we're pessimistic that a 'why' adds value beyond the appeal and differentiation that the brand can clearly and succinctly articulate in its advertising. Corporations buy many commodity goods because their procurement departments still consider unit rate costs or purchase through tender.
At best, 'Find Your Why' helps you to understand your motivations for what you're doing. Because Sinek understands that motivation is fuelled by desire. At worst, 'Find Your Why' reinforces the belief of naive entrepreneurs that a noble cause like sustainability substitutes for value proposition or solid business plan.
We admire Sinek's cause and we hope his optimism continues to spread. We just think he needs to temper his enthusiasm with more balanced advice. And keep his books much shorter.
Summary
Readability: 7/10
Relevance: 6/10
Applicability: 5/10