On June 10th, 2010 a couple of days shy of Menlo's 9th birthday, Todd Kamens wrote to me. He had recently visited Menlo on a tour.
"I came across a great speech by Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why, and I thought of you and your company. Listening to you describe how your company works and the people that work there, I couldn't help but draw the correlations to the truth behind what Simon spoke about. Let me know what you think."
Sinek and his powerfully simple Start with Why message had not yet caught the attention of millions (the referenced video now boasts 12.3M views!). I watched it and took away some key thoughts:
- Most companies know what they do and how they do it. Few understand why.
- The most powerful brands start with why.
- Your why should communicate what you believe, why you exist, and what difference you are trying to make in the world.
Todd had further shared that "Rich, you do this when you talk about Menlo."
I appreciated Todd's sentiment but the more I thought about it, I did not do this when I talked about Menlo. I would first talk about what we do (we design and develop custom software). I would then show people on a tour how we do it (working in a big, open collaborative environment using simple paper-based project management tools, techniques like pair programming to create high quality software, and High-Tech Anthropology® to ensure the designs will delight the end user). Yet, I seldom, if ever, got to the why.
Simon made it clear… people don't buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it.
START with your WHY.
I was determined to try. So the next time I led a tour, I shared our why, which was waiting for me like a gift in our Mission Statement:
Our goal since our founding in 2001 is to return Joy to one of the most unique endeavors mankind has ever undertaken... the invention of software. Joy for the users, the sponsors who pay for software, and the people who do the work of designing and building it. All highlighted under a mission to "end human suffering in the world as it relates to technology and teams."®
Our why was simple, yet inspiring: The Business Value of Joy!
The response from the group was almost startling... They asked me emphatically why I was talking about joy in a business context? I pointed to the room we were about to tour and I asked them a hypothetical question:
Imagine you want us to design and develop business software for your company and for some odd reason half of this room of people had joy and the other half didn't. Which half would you want?
They wanted the joyful half, of course.
I asked them why it would matter?
They answered:
"They'd be more productive!"
"They'd do better work!"
"They'd care more about the outcomes!"
"They'd stick with it until it was great!"
"They'd be easier to work with!"
They'd answered the joy question themselves. I told them they could stop me at any point on the tour and ask about any one of our practices and press me to answer "what does THAT have to do with joy?" And I promised I could draw a short straight line back to joy.
My life hasn't been the same since. This simple concept of starting with why led me to write two business books with words like joy and love on the cover. The books have carried me around the world to deliver keynotes on joy, and it has led over 26,000 people since 2013 to come visit Menlo and see the joy for themselves.
Our brand promise is simple:
JOY.
Joy for the end users who end up LOVING the experience of the software we have designed.
Joy for the project's sponsors whose money was well stewarded along the way.
Joy in the room for the people doing the work.
Our brand guarantee is simple too:
Stick with us and we will not abandon you.
Software is hard. We have the grit and the determination to get to the bottom of what would make joy for our clients and their end users. Joy is simple, but getting to it is not easy. Hard work does not dissuade us from our brand promise.
I like having a brand that our team members can easily speak with their families about over dinner and feel like they were given the best possible chance to work with pride.
