Start with Why and Double-Check your Company’s DNA
I will take you on an expedition. Pack up all your notes, ideas, and goals, and let us reflect on lessons learned from the past. From the experience of designing buildings, developing over three museums, and launching several (SaaS) platforms and e-commerce companies worldwide. All those lessons on a journey that we now in our team called Inspiral Growth.
In the previous article, I shared all about agencies’ different onboarding methods to identify the people your company serves.
And they are all valid and ready to use. Yet, depending on the time you spend analyzing how organizations can be built, you might consider this. Winston Churchill said, “Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.”.
So with that in mind…
a second step we take in our Inspiral Plan is to apply the famous Golden Circle of Simon Sinek. Simon Sinek calls this powerful insight of companies around the world like Apple. Have you seen his Ted Talk? By now, I’m sure most of the entrepreneurs I have met had read his book Start with Why, and for the ones I have still yet to meet, I will recommend it as well.
In this second phase for us, we consider reviewing each company’s Why, the How, and the What. The powerful idea of the golden circle exercise will serve a second pair of eyes and spot any possible misdirection or misunderstanding in the fundamental DNA of your brand. It verifies, in many cases, the vision, mission, and values described on the first draft of the DNA of a brand.
But this phase is not about delivering you a list of questions you could ask yourself. I would certainly recommend you to read the book Start with Why and The Infinite Game and to take an honest inspection of those notes, ideas, and goals you packed.
The best way to practice something is by telling it to others, so here is my approach to our golden circle for Inspiral Growth.
Think about this for a moment
You spend over 12 years going to school. In those last years of school, you find yourself almost sure about what you wish to accomplish in your near future and choose a topic to make a living with a career in mind.
You choose the institution where to spend the next phase of your life. For example, a bachelor, an engineer, a marketeer; the list goes on and on. It takes another 3 to 5 years to earn a diploma that certifies you as a professional. (depending on your direction, it could be more time as well).
You gain the sufficient knowledge you think you need to join the ranks of a prestigious company or institution. And then you land your first job under the supervision of a certain ¨manager¨ and follow the lead of a CEO or a Founder… Sounds familiar?
In my opinion, this is undoubtedly one of the first moments where you could consider luck could take part in your professional career. And I don’t mean if you were lucky enough to land a job in that prestigious company. I mean, if you were lucky enough to find a great LEADER on the board and share valuable time with them at that first company you decided to work for.
I had that luck, and I wish the same to every kid out there having their first interview in their first work opportunity.
No Bosses, But Mentors
For years I said it proudly: I never had a boss, I had mentors! Over and over again, and with great mentors, also grand visions. From the genius guidance from Prof. Dr. Es-Souni and the support of Dr.-Ing. Matthias Dietze on my first work experience at the Institute for Materials & Surface Technology in Kiel, Germany.
Right after them, I had the pleasure of working with my father, Eco. Leonidas Zuloaga García and his outstanding talent for Finances and Talent Management with APDetailing in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Later on, short but immensely important with the master of project management Val Chua, Head of Maspeth Welding Inc in New York, USA, and finally with one-of-a-kind business people such as Jouri Bondarev and Boaz Avrahami in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Jouri and Boaz were the last ones I worked for. Since then, we have only focused on building on what we believe in and building more on why we do what we do.
I send my best regards to each of them and thank you for all your lessons. Great leaders inspire.
Such lessons made a mark on realizing that I was in the right place or pursuing the right cause. Each of them added weight to my core values, such as loyalty and integrity, as the highest level of dedication you could express.
These past experiences and lessons from mentors made way to what we here at Inspiral Growth represent as our why, how, and our what.
Our Why:
We take part in the creation of a better future for professionals in South America.
Our How:
We do it by building skilled teams that solve the challenges of companies in Europe and the USA.
Our What:
We deliver Growth Marketing & Business Analytics Services to companies and free educational assets to professionals.
Back in 2010, in my first year in Amsterdam, I kept two European diplomas and several MBA courses under my arm. I had working permits, spoke three languages, and had a few years of work experience in Germany, Ecuador, and the USA.
Nonetheless, finding a job in the Netherlands was not easy at all. The 2008 World Economic crisis was still very much alive in Europe. Amsterdam was not the exception, but I also did not speak Dutch.
Create Opportunities
So my first job in Amsterdam was in Sales, and I’m happy it happened. If you are a professional and you have this read so far, write this down: Whatever you do in life, you should teach yourself more about Sales, Marketing, and Psychology.
Thanks to Jouri in Amsterdam, I got into Sales, then into Import/Export, then into Business Development, and even into franchising a significant brand in Tourism into the Dutch Market.
As an Ecuadorian living in Europe for most of my life, I found opportunities and took them with open arms. I hung to them and did not let go till I could get all the knowledge and experience for each of them until my next jump.
That tree of opportunities is the kind of tree we are planting here at Inspiral Growth. With the vision to see a forest in the years to come. I invite people and organizations to join us.
After reading this article, I hope our Why is clear to you and that it sparks you to reflect on the golden circle inside your environment. The golden circle is the second phase in our Inspiral Plan.
