Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek is best known for the proposition that people do not buy what you do, they buy why you do it — the organising idea of Start With Why and of his TED talk on how leaders inspire action. The practical form is the golden circle: most organisations can describe what they make and how, and comparatively few can state why they exist in terms that mean anything to anyone else.

What makes it usable rather than decorative is that a stated purpose is testable. A purpose worth having should carry emotional weight when said aloud, hold up if the work paid less, settle hard decisions by itself, be explainable by an employee to a customer without translation, and actually distinguish the organisation from its competitors.

His work informs the mission and positioning material collected here.