The Golden Circle

The Golden circle refers to the underlying reasons behind why a person does what he/she does. Its looking beyond WHAT he does (Which he clearly states) and HOW he does (Which he sometimes states). However, beneath the layers of the visible lays the absolute truth.

The truth which we know it deep within however are unable to express. It also is related to the way our brain is naturally construed. Right outside is the neocortex or the rationale part of the brain. It’s the part which gives reasoning to our decisions we make (To make sense of the randomness/Gutfeel that we operate with). However, it is the limbic brain which gives the real purpose of our decision making but doesn’t understand the language of expression. Weird, right?

But it is what it is. Therefore, when it comes to building a community, the sense of purpose/Core value upon which the entire thread is build has to absolutely CRYSTAL CLEAR. It is what binds people irrespective of their age, gender, class, nationality or anything literally.

When a quarter million Americans came together to list to now eternal speech “ I have a dream” they came together to listen to a black man knowing very well they were whites. It’s the purpose/Cause that binds people more than anything. It is this exact purpose on which leaderships dwell upon. The loyalist are built on the same premise. They believe in something bigger than themselves. A bigger purpose/A bigger mission.

Apple – Harley Davidson – South-Western Airline- Martin Luther King jr – Mahatma Gandhi – Subhash Chandra Bose – TATAs all have a common purpose that binds the stakeholders related to them close and create a sort of cult.

So, why, when its clearly visible how to create a long-term trust and loyalty do corporations fail to do so? The answer lies in the vision and actions alignment. When short-term gains overpower the vision of the organization on a regular basis, people lose sight of the WHY they started with. Many do start with the WHY and build a wonderful billion-dollar businesses, only to derail later on over the years.

How you ask? Well Manipulations in forms of Price, promotion, fear, novelty, aspiration and peer pressure are too strong to forget the core WHY. These elements give spurt in sales and instant reaffirmation that it works. The only question, AT WHAT COST?

Why is that the house of TATAs has been able to delve into all possible industries and businesses that we can possibly think of? What does the brand TATA stand for? Trust. It is therefore very easy for them to start airlines, foods, Hotel, software amongst many other. Do the products matter really? Absolutely they do. The decision may be taken from the gut/ heart wherever you may think of. But as the human tendency goes, we are social animals and we need to make our decision appreciated and accepted by all. So we then start listing why the products are superior to any other that exists in the market. Whereas in reality we just align ourselves with the core value of the organization.

So, the manipulations so successfully applied to daily businesses are not successful? Of course not. The power of such manipulations are immense and lead to spurts in sales like no other and therefore are very crucial to the organization and therefore has to go hand in hand with building the core beliefs. To be precise the WHY has to precede the HOW and the WHAT. Which is the opposite of how organizations move. They start selling us the features and USPs of their products. Does a apple user really going to consider the features by the competition? In most parts, they are not. They have already came into the store with the brand fixated into their heads, it’s the model that is into the consideration set for them. Which tends to align with their needs.

But as a consumer, if asked, do we know why we choose a particular brand over the other? We think we do – We think we choose Apple because the product is better, the UI/UX are phenomenal but underlying these external reasons that we give ourselves lies our major need of belongingness. The need to belong and be accepted into a particular group. And because Apple and its users stand for challenging the Status-quo, we relate to the ideology deep within and to the people who think the same. The products are secondary. The Stand for Cause primary. ??