As a company grows, it’s necessary to separate functions in the business. This makes sense because in a multi-million or billion dollar company, no one can do everything. There’s a need for efficiency and organization. However, most companies at this stage end up losing sight of their original “why”, as the immediate benchmarks to ensure efficiency take over.
When this happens, a marketing function may optimize toward one type of metric, while a manufacturing function may optimize toward another. An R&D group seeks out new solutions based on one goal, while a finance group measures performance based on another. The end result? It’s what we call “The Frankenstein Product”.
Frankenstein products make it difficult for people to connect with your “why”, even if you’ve worked hard to define the right one for your company. The fragmentation of large scale operations can dilute the delivery of the “why”.
Again, when Simon Sinek talks about starting with “why”, the examples he cites are of companies that not only start with “why” but they have holistically carried it through everything they do. They have translated their “why” to each business function, so that the whole company moves in one, unified direction.
Delivering a product that exemplifies the ‘why’ is just the beginning. How is the “why” translated consistently throughout the company so every touch point is consistent? We’ll talk about that next.
Photo by Aris Sfakianakis on Unsplash