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I watched a really inspiring TED Talk by Simon Sinek fromm 2009. The gyst of the talk was how leaders lead with a purpose and not a plan. The plan serves the purpose. Mr. Sinek illustrated a diagram (Golden Circle) of three circles with What in the outter ring, How in the second ring and Why in the inner circle. He demonstrated the normal marketing message which starts with What is being sold and How its made or made differently - but stops short of the Why. He used Apple as the case of a company who market from the Why outward. This approcah had led Apple to be a huge industry leader. People buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

There was an intersting comment on the TED site from an "seasoned" insurance company manager who was struggling to apply this Golden Circle to the insurance company. She said that Sinek's message was good for "sexy" products like Apple computers or iPods, but it wouldn't work for a commodity product like insurance. What this manager missed, let's call her Jane. She missed the part about people buying because of a company's beliefs. Let's look at cheesy bread. I'm not a big fan of it. When you order pizza, they try to throw in more crust dough with a tiny bit of cheese on it. Domino's is running some commercials where company leaders own up to the fact that they were some of the worst offenders in the barely cheesy cheesy bread scandal. So, they created cheesy bread that is REALLY cheesy. Cheese inside and out. They have gone above and beyond to right their wrongs. Nonetheless, I'm not really interested in cheesy bread, but I am moved by their commercials. Not by the amount of cheese, but the amount of concern and dedication Domino's demonstrated to their customers. They told me, "Buy from us because we care about the quality and value of our products and we're willing to show you." Their Why is - "because we are in touch with what you want as a consumer."