How to use 'Golden Circle' rule to boost your business?

Previous Article- What is G-Circle?

“What’s good for relationships is also good for business sheets.” - Robert Wagnon, CEO, Republic State Mortgage 

Very well said!

Have you ever wondered why some people, organisations or brands inspire us so much? Or are so impactful that we so unknowingly get captivated by their aura and just can't get over their magnetism? Why at times this even turns into our blind faith in them? Because there's something that differentiates these from the rest and makes them stand out. 

Do you know what?

It's their approach. 

"A sustainable business policy puts people first"

The Golden Circle Rule basically projects this same belief that when you lift individuals up, your business not just thrives but prospers. In fact, it grows in leaps and bounds!

Great people focus on inspiring rather than manipulating the people. 

*Manipulations= discounts, offers, feature comparisons

If you can inspire people with the business you do, you don't have to chase people or success. Instead, they fan-follow you. This ideation to create a fanbase can be used to solve many business and social problems: to drive revenues and conversions, create a value proposition, improve leadership, corporate culture, hiring, product development, sales and marketing; and also to give momentum to any social movement, spread values, cultural bonding and many more. 

Now the question arises how can we implement this new life anthem of inspiring people in the Digital Era in different walks of life? Let's see how...

First, In a Startup...

1. An In-demand Business Idea

2018 Statistics reveal that a good business idea is all about demand. 42% of start-ups fail if they offer products/ services the market doesn't need.

A start-up should be a painkiller rather than a vitamin. -Shortfundly

That's the only way a start-up can stand out from the mob of start-ups mushrooming every now and then. Your business should first of all be a solution to some painpoint and then anything else.

2. Stick To Why

Often profits steal away the real purpose of businesses. But if businesses focus on the growth of WHAT at the expense of WHY they finally lose their ability to inspire & thrive. It may lead to more volume but less clarity. Thus WHY needs to be necessarily integrated into the company's culture so as to save itself from all deviations. 

In such case even if the company loses its founder, either due to split, termination in any form or death, the future leaders can still keep the founding vision alive and its credibility strong. When the clarity of WHY goes fuzzy, the organisations may strike loud but they're no longer clear.

The graph shows how the growth of why must be closely aligned with the growth of what.

3. Personalised Approach 

Simon says:

“The goal is not to do business with anybody/ everybody who needs what you have, the goal is to do business with who believe what you believe”                                                                          

Have a look below to know what's the major problem with most businesses today.

With a herd mentality we keep following the same age-old ways: lucrative schemes, gathering more views, collecting more contacts and leads, hitting all gathered contacts with continuous mails and messages across all touchpoints— both online and offline. And what do they get in return? Just few hard-fought conversions!

Amidst these flooding and overflowing choices techno-savvy customers have today, the Golden Circle Rule can be a Midas Touch for you if you aim to inspire loyalty and fanbase, not just transactions!

We need not pitch everyone. Instead of wasting tons of money, time, resources and efforts aimlessly on people who won't even open your mails or messages, with a streamlined focus, you should directly pitch the right target audience.

“People don’t buy WHAT you do; they buy WHY you do it.” - Simon Sinek

This is the ideology that lies at the heart of the Golden Circle Rule. No wonder, without well-defined strategies, companies can't use this magic wand to succeed. More strategies are:

4. A Complementing Structure 

Passion and structure are complementary to each other. Without structure, passion can't thrive. To keep the passion alive, structure is inevitable. It's at the HOW level, the tangibility occurs. 

The Golden Circle Rule in a cone form can be resembled to a company and its staff. Atop is a leader/leaders (CEO, Founder, Co-founders) inspired by a dream, a passion. He needs the backing of goal-driven and competent senior executives who are inspired by the leader's vision and know HOW to bring it to life. The remaining employees need to be driven by the leader's vision to replicate the HOW processes again-and-again to realise the WHY. Without the HOW-TYPES and the WHAT-TYPES, the WHY definitely is not feasible for any company. 

5. Building A Work Culture 

Once you've got a good business idea, the next focus needs to be building a core team, which can survive only with a good work culture. 

If there's good work culture, the best employees always want to stay. Not just for the sake of money, but because this bond will give them job satisfaction and new dimensions to their creativity which will again bring mutual benefits.

Listen to an expert Kaustubh Dhargalkar that how this work culture can take your business to a new beginning. One of his videos is here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/activity:6605698394935656448/

Culture is a ladder to achieve the WHY of a company.

6. Communicate Clearly 

Whether it’s the products and services, marketing or branding, all are a way for businesses to communicate to the outside world. So no ambiguity is affordable. All efforts of the company should convey its right and true image and should represent its vision and mission at the WHY and WHAT level. The company's face value is what overall matters. 

7. A Three-stage Harmony 

“If people believe in what you believe, then they will sometimes go to extraordinary lengths to include those products or brands in their lives.” -Simon Sinek

So to keep this belief there needs to be an inevitable harmony between your Why, How and What. To establish this harmony you need 3 things:

a) Clarity of WHY: 

When Steve Jobs says:  “Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”

he means to say that you should know your Why, your passion, to know why you need to say no to 1000 other things that don't match your passion.

Then whatever you do, it will always knock at the heart first and then the brain. The like-minded people will then not just connect back to you, but also handhold you in your cause.

b) Discipline of HOW

Save yourself from unwanted focusing too much on your competitors and blindly copying whatever features they introduce. 

Simon writes:

“It’s the discipline to never veer from your cause, to hold yourself accountable to HOW you do things; that’s the hardest part.”

The only contact between the organised & the disorganised system is at the base, i.e. at the WHAT level. Thus, if all the things happening at the WHAT level, lack a well-defined HOW to achieve it, it can't build trust in the company's WHY.

*Marketplace = All current & potential customers, press, shareholders, competitors, suppliers, money

c) Consistency of WHAT

People can detect inconsistencies which can erode their trust.

If Why is your core belief, your What, i.e., what you produce, proves the authenticity of your belief. The What is the only tangible proof that people can see. It's difficult to reach at no.1, but it's even more difficult to stay there.

Therefore your What needs to be reinforced over and over again to build trust.

But the vitality of this rule isn't just limited to corporate. Let's see how to use it in our day-to-day life in the next article.