Next, collect answers to these questions:

What does your company do?

A phrase or sentence describing your primary business for the next five years. Examples: “Make toothpaste”, “fix cars”, etc.

How do you do it?

What’s your secret sauce? What technology or approach sets you apart from the competition? Examples: “Made with all-natural ingredients”, “best-in-class friendly service”, etc.

Why?

You can think of the why as the reason you get out of bed in the morning and go to work. The why should reflect the core reason your company exists, and it won’t change much over time. You may pivot the business, launch new products, and enter new markets, but your why remains the same. Examples: “Promote healthy living”, “help people get where they need to go”, etc.

Once again, you’ll Note-and-Vote:

1. Each person quietly writes down his or her ideas for what, how, and why. 2. Going around the room, each person reads their answers aloud and the facilitator writes them on the whiteboard. 3. No argument or discussion yet. 4. Each person looks at the list and quietly writes down their favorite answers. 5. Going around the room, each person reads their votes aloud and the facilitator marks the votes on the whiteboard. 6. Discuss what and how for about five minutes each, but don’t argue the semantics — it’s not that important. 7. At the end of each five-minute segment, the Decider chooses her favorite answer. 8. Discuss why for about ten minutes. This can be difficult, so agree that today’s version will be a placeholder — you can come back to it later. 9. After ten minutes, the Decider makes the call. 10. Take a photo of the whiteboard and add it to your slide deck.

To better understand the power of why, let’s talk about Apple and Nike.

As I mentioned above, Simon Sinek uses Apple as an example of a company who understands and communicates their why extremely well. Normally, I avoid using Apple or Steve Jobs as an example for anything, because (a) it’s really overdone and (b) there are so many hard-to-replicate reasons for their success. Saying “do what Apple did!” isn’t very helpful advice. But… when Laura showed me this 1997 video of Jobs, I realized we had to include it in this guide.

I don’t know, maybe this guy knows something about brand. Let’s hear him out.

The video is worth watching for a few reasons. First, it’s unpolished. Jobs was a fantastic speaker, and here you get to see him without the trappings of an iPhone event. Second, he’s addressing Apple employees, not the world. It’s a behind-the-scenes video from before Apple’s resurgence, which is very cool to see. And finally, it’s completely on-topic for your Brand Sprint. This is the moment where Jobs explains Apple’s why and its importance to their products, advertising, and sales. Today — 20 years later! — the why is still relevant.

One more classic example is Nike. (Also a bit obvious and overdone, but so good I can’t resist.) Here’s a quote from Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog about the earliest days of Nike, in 1964:

“I’d been unable to sell encyclopedias, and I’d despised it to boot. I’d been slightly better at selling mutual funds, but I’d felt dead inside. So why was selling shoes so different? Because, I realized, it wasn’t selling. I believed in running. I believed that if people got out and ran a few miles every day, the world would be a better place, and I believed these shoes were better to run in. People, sensing my belief, wanted some of that belief for themselves. Belief, I decided. Belief is irresistible.”

Today, more than 50 years later, Nike stands for pretty much the exact same thing. Here’s their current mission statement:

Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. *If you have a body, you are an athlete.

Coming up with a great why sounds basic. It’s not. It’s surprisingly hard. Encourage your CEO or founder to be idealistic and remember why they started this company or took this job. We spend most of our time at the office being pragmatic. This is not a time to be pragmatic — it’s a time to wear your heart on your sleeve.