CHAPTER 8 | INSIDE OUT OR OUTSIDE IN?

In 2009 Simon Senek did a TED Talk on “The Power of Why.”

Marketers and strategists ran around in a frenzy with this new way of looking at brand development, messaging, internal communications, your life, EVERYTHING.

WHY was HOT. Books were written. Bandwagons were created. His talk about purpose, belief and “what’s your why” upended strategic thinking.

“People don’t buy what you do, but why you do it.”

“If you hire people because of what you do you’ll hire people motivated by money. If you hire people who care about why you do what you do, they will be passionate and driven to work for you.”

Agencies re-did their pitches to clients until WHY became a cliché.

Simon Senek called this “inside out” strategic marketing.

This is NOT strategic planning lead by a marketing POV, which was referenced in earlier chapters. WHY is a great influence on mission and values, but let’s not let it get in the way of business logic and strategic planning.

What if a company has no emotional mission, vision or values? What if the company exists to exist, to maintain relevancy, to sell products and services to pay back investors and make profit, keeping their staffs thriving? Does that qualify as “purpose?”

What if the company is large with multiple divisions, and each division does strategic planning for their division, or even their sub-groups, rather than just at the enterprise level? Do those people need “purpose” or do they need a connection to the company that serves their own interests? To grow, to be a part of excellence, or to improve the quality of their lives as employees?

Herein lies why the words strategic planning can’t be bantered about as a catch-all, and why the process cannot be formulaic.

For cynical company founders and CEOs, Simon Senek is silly.

There are planning and messaging shorthands that have come from his work, but WHY, or WHY/HOW/WHAT doesn’t include business acumen.

WHY sits in a larger circle with long-term business strategy and objectives, short-term operational objectives and a marketing engine that can make it all happen.

If you look at all those other things, there’s a lot more “outside in” going on than inside out. Like understanding customers, prospects, competitors and trends in the sector.

A lot tends to fall onto’s marketing’s to-do list, and as we’ve said before, marketing has the longest list of to-do’s.

There are very few businesses or organizations (non-profit, advocacy, government) that can be successful without knowing what people want and if people know they need it.

That’s outside in. Strategic planning based on market viability.