Great Leaders Need Authenticity | David Simnick | TEDxCollegeofWilliam&Mary

hello my name is Dave Schoeneck and I'm the CEO and co-founder of soapbox I first want to say that it's a humbling honor to be here and today I want to talk about why great leaders need authenticity specifically why some movements fail and those with soul succeed a little bit about soapbox to understand why I'm standing here I think about authenticity every day and I actually get paid to think about authenticity and the reason why I think about this topic so much is because we founded a company based on authenticity see soapbox is a buy one give one company and what that means is that every time someone buys one of our bars of soap or liquid hand soaps or body washes we donate a bar soap to local homeless shelters or food pantries all across the United States and we also work abroad in over 50 different countries through various different NGOs of where we have local makers actually make the soap to not damage the local economies that we seek to serve every time someone buys one of our shampoos or conditioners or lotions we do a month of clean water development through our amazing charity partner splash so authenticity means everything to us because without it we couldn't speak to our consumers in that authentic way so I think about these type of things often and in order to dive into what I want to talk about today we need to establish a framework there are three different case studies that I think about often when trying to think of why leaders need authenticity and the first one is about TOMS shoes Blake Mackowski started TOMS shoes back in 2006 and it's a similar one for one company but what amazes me is how in such a competitive environment they were able to have such astronomical success a counter example of this is it fascinates me why discount airlines like spirit air or Ryanair in Europe are some of the most hated brands by far yet there are some of the most traveled and profitable airline companies in the whole industry and finally through this framework I want to dive into how Nelson Mandela after working with African National Congress as well as the sitting president at the time was able to abolish apartheid and keep the country from tearing itself apart so in order to do that I want to use a former TED talk so behind me is a gentleman named simon Sinek that's Simon and during his talk in 2009 he went over the golden circle and that's the circle the golden circle to paraphrase for those who haven't seen it or those who need a refresher has boiled down to this consumers don't buy what you do they buy why you do it I'll say it again they don't buy what you do they buy why you do it and to go over his talk briefly I want to dissect each of the lovers levels so starting with what every company knows what he argues what they make what services they provide this is full stop businesses at least know what they provide few companies understand the how and by how he means well how are they different what's their unique selling proposition what makes them different from their competitors but very little almost none he argues understand the why and buy why he means well companies why should be to make profit that's not what he's talking about it's why get out of bed in the morning why if we were to use an example of widget makers should company X exists and company Y exists why does that company have a purpose and why should it be there and as I thought about all these things especially when it comes to authenticity it was an amazing framework and it's one of the reasons we started so box something as simple as a bar of soap as simple as a bar so one of the most commoditized products in the history of marketing we chose the name soap box because it used to be door-to-door salesmen that sold soap it was actually one of the first masse commercialized products and then soap operas actually come from soap companies used to advertise on radio programs daytime drama to the head of the household that they were hoping would buy their wares soap operas we thought that we could start a company that had a really genuine why and actually changed the emotional relationship with something as simple as a bar soap so Simon's talk had a profound impact on me but as I continued to grow soap box and as the years have passed I've noticed that why is not enough it's not and this isn't a critique it's more of an amendment I want to walk through a very stark example of this and that is a couple years ago KFC franchise owner in Utah had a family member that had type 1 diabetes and they wanted to do something about it so they basically looked at their menu found one of the most high profit margin items on there and said you know what every time someone buys this item we're gonna donate $1 to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation it was an absolute failure and the reason being is the item that they used to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation was a half-gallon 800 calories 56 spoonfuls of sugar drink obviously there's some irony here help save type one diabetes by potentially giving yourself type two diabetes it didn't resonate it didn't work and although the Y was there the Y made sense why are they selling this item because gosh darn it people with type 1 diabetes should not be born into that life that makes sense that why resonates but the problem here is that it wasn't authentic I want to walk through another example Lamborghini one of the nicest cars ever made it's a status symbol what if Lamborghini today said we make such an amazing car we make such a quality product that's starting today every time you buy one we're here to donate one to a child that wouldn't stick it wouldn't make sense that probably at best it would hurt the brand and the reason being is because it doesn't make sense we know somewhere in a gut feeling when brands are lying to us or they're trying to be fake or inauthentic so I want to add an amendment to the golden circle that was a delayed click yes it's true that people don't buy what you do they buy why you do it but they only buy it and they only believe in that why if it is actually authentic so in the years of running soap box and the years of seeing the marketplace of different companies or leaders come out and put out their plans and put out their proposals and talk about the real purpose of why they believe and what they believe I've noticed that without an arrow guiding them it doesn't connect so I want to go through Simon cynics Golden Circle by offering an arrow that leads to the bullseye of why and that is we start with quality this is the base of the arrow every company out there believes that they make quality products we make it with the finest ingredients we make it with quality craftsmanship we have the most skilled laborers assembling this beautiful product for you most everyone says that few companies actually are transparent about that what makes them different and in the age of Yelp reviews and Amazon reviews and Glassdoor reviews on how employees treat or employers treat their employees this is becoming increasingly important radically transparent companies are winning this battle and finally the tip of that arrow is authenticity and you can't have why without authenticity and the reason being is because authenticity is legitimacy and legitimacy leads to why because without actually having authenticity the arrow is pointless see what I did there the magic of clickers this comes down to using the golden circle and using an arrow this kind of looks like a target and the reason why we use an arrow is because the only way you get to the bullseye of Y is through the authentic care of so to quote a much wiser man than myself as Shakespeare once said to thine own self be true same to brands be truthful to your brand I don't want to walk through a couple case studies TOMS shoes started by Blake Mycoskie back in 2006 he was a successful entrepreneur he goes down to Argentina in a cafe a woman stops by collecting shoes and he goes why are you collecting shoes she goes well there are children who can't afford shoes and they can't go to school without shoes and like Bob goes off and he goes wait I should start a non-for-profit getting shoes from America to Argentina this is a great idea although he's a successful entrepreneur and goes wait there might be a more sustainable way of doing this and starts TOMS shoes TOMS shoes has had astronomical success in a wildly competitive environment and the reason being is because they follow the authentic arrow better than anyone else quality they were one of the first people to actually introduce this type of Argentine this alpha' raghava shoe to the marketplace transparency they used to bring people or then they still do their customers along giving trips so they could see it face to face so that they could be a part of that how and finally the authenticity is both the tip but then also the result of building up through this arrow and getting to why and that is that every year they do one day without shoes they get thousands of college students across the country in order to take off their shoes and walk around campus without shoes Nike Adidas New Balance they're not able to do that and the reason being is because they didn't start with that mission it's not authentic to their brand but that's pretty amazing when people are willing to put themselves through discomfort for a whole day in order to live authenticity so it's not just an offense strategy in business it's a defensive strategy Skechers looking at Toms success in 2010 launches Bob's I'm not kidding this is literally what they did I want to be in that board meeting where they're just like if we can't do Tom's and we can't do Tim's Bob what do you got Bob's I like I think literally that's exactly how the meeting win but I think about this and I'm just like this how and even though Skechers continues to make Bob's this one line is nowhere near successful as TOMS shoes let's take it a step further air walk actually released their air walk hope shoes and once again nowhere near the success of Tom's having authenticity with your brand is almost creating a moat that the bigger strategics can't cross because it is your brand you're speaking from a place of why and the reason why consumers believe in that why is because you have the authenticity and legitimacy to say it but with every business Tom's ran into trouble in 2012 and 2013 there were growing amounts of criticism saying that maybe they're one for one model actually was hurting certain communities than helping because what if they were actually overloading certain economies with free goods instead of actually having local shoe makers make those shoes more importantly what if they were actually teaching dependence within the communities in which they were serving this these are great criticisms and the way that Tom's responded to that is basically by saying look we understand that our transparency is being threatened and without going from quality to transparency to authenticity if you lose one part of the arrow you can't get to authenticity so they were in trouble and Blake and his team thankfully responded to that in 2013 2014 and 2015 their biggest metric as stated by Blake himself was I want to see how many shoes are actually made in the countries we serve and they switched it over to making where they give why is authenticity important well in this growing age of where Millennials are looking at what their friends are talking about with your brand with other competitors brands and even Harvard Business study said that out of yelps five stars if you move just one star over a business can expect a five to nine percent increase in sales just one star and with over 41% of product searches starting on Amazon first brands can't not afford to be authentic because we're sharing it anyways and a lot of friends say that I look like a hipster and some of my friends actually looked like this which I think takes it a step further than what I look like but hipsters and Millennials are kind of interesting breed being one myself when I've noticed is that we're yearning for authenticity from our brands the reason we want free-range chicken and organic this an organic thought and some of us even look like we're churning butter in our backyards and some of us are is because we want something that's real we've been over marketed to and we don't believe fake social causes anymore it needs to be from here so I want to use a counter example when people fly spirit and Ryanair in Europe they hate it like literally look at any type of review on these Airlines and you're going to see be PPP PPP and be PPP PPP play it's Morris code and when we look at this it's go how could these brands be authentic it's because they're nothing that they're not and they're everything that they are they even advertise that you are going to have a bad experience fly us it will be the cheapest option and you will hate it that is what they say and it's so interesting because if you look at the authentic era once again the quality is not the quality of service the quality is the price people know exactly what they're getting or hopefully right like someone's not on kayaking like this looks nice and then all of a sudden oh my god my life I guess that has happened to me but anyways the point is that the transparency comes into how they advertise the quality is the price and finally the authenticity is Michael O'Leary the CEO of Ryanair a couple years ago jokingly told in the press conference that they were gonna start charging people to use the toilet on the plane within hours everyone started reporting that Ryanair was gonna start charging people to use the toilet and that that is true authenticity when you as a joke be like hey you can't go to the bath you can't poo on a plane you got to pay me and then all of a sudden everyone goes yep they're gonna do it that means you hit the brand the brand is the fact that people believe you're not gonna allow them to go to the bathroom without giving them a couple dollars which would leave some really interesting playing Fiasco's without change been bailed as a-- basically the former CEO of a spirit once said no one walks into McDonald's and gets disappointed when they don't see flaming out of the menu it's the same thing with them they are who they are and they don't try to be what they're not finally a personal hero of mine it's not like I knew him it's not like he was like out my fave five I was like hey Nelson I wish is Nelson Mandela and to take this out of the corporate world and to extrapolate over - why all leaders need to be authentic I find this example to be really interesting Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison he was the greatest single threat to the white Afrikaner government or the National Party and he was put in prison because he had such a powerful message now what's really interesting is that in the years that he spent in prison he basically when he was released said when I walked out of prison that was my mission to liberate both the oppressed and the oppressor both the authenticity that he was able to have allowed for Union to actually come together because one of the most important things Nelson Mandela did is when he got out of prison he didn't go to actually take away everything that the Afrikaner had yes he wanted dismantle apartheid but one of the things that he fought against his whole party the African National Congress or was the fact that they wanted to dismantle pretty much everything including the sports leagues and Nelson Mandela knew how important these sports leagues were for the Afrikaners or the the the ancestral German or Dutch individuals that actually forced apartheid on the majority of blacks within South Africa he knew how important it was and even though he was giving pressure from all the people within his party that said why are you allowing these people to have their sports and their organizations as long as they weren't continuing to push forward apartheid but why were you allowing these things to exist and the reason being is because he knew that in order to get people to come together to not have it tip Tara something tear itself apart was that there's some institutions that had to remain when you look at the authenticity that he had the quality was that he could speak more than anyone else about the time that he spent in prison he could look at other members in the Anne's he and say look what time have you put in have you born a larger cross and I have and the transparency was in how he talked to other people and what he said he was able to communicate through both speech and written letter to the Afrikaners that yes I am one day get to be President I know that's wildly presumptuous for me to believe that he thought that but yes we are going to win probably this election in 1995 or 1994-95 but we can come together and finally the authenticity is he more than any leader had that authenticity to say you know I understand the rage and the desire from the ancy party members as well as the people who were put down under apartheid to rip apart the institutions but there are some that need to stay because we need a united South Africa it is true that people don't buy what you do they buy why you do it but they only believe in the why if you have the authenticity behind it I'm a firm firm believer in the fact that all businesses can be better and all businesses can do good but that good must be authentic because without authenticity we're left wondering why thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 65,586

Rating: 4.7363467 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Business, Leadership

Id: 9D8rurK4fzQ

Length: 21min 2sec (1262 seconds)

Published: Fri May 13 2016