The specialized press has been speculating for months about the Apple crisis. It´s not the first time that the Cupertino company is facing a bad run, as it already suffered one in the late nineties. Both respond to very different reasons, they occur in different situations, but they have a nexus of union: the absence of Steve Jobs.

How is it possible that the same company, with the same human group and a very similar competition, runs so many different lots depending on who directs it? To what extent does the work of a leader influence the work of a group of people?

That's what Simon Sinek, author of the leadership books Start With Why and Leaders Eat Last, has been studying for years. According to the writer, people are not inspired so much by what you do, but by why you do it. In this way, the intangible that turns a person into a leader would not be so much the execution of certain acts but the force that moves those acts, the motivation.

simon sinek

There are people who have the ability to inspire, something that does not depend only on their charisma or the nobleness of their cause, but on knowing how to combine both aspects. This principle, Sinek defends, is as valid for an employer as for a civil rights leader, an activist or a politician. After all, what makes a leader is his character, not the sector in which he moves. However, this predicament has a very different penetration according to the field in which it is given.

For example, Sinek's theory has a lot of predicament in politics, where the principles are as important as the results. "Here," says the writer with Luther King in mind, “I have a dream works better than I have a plan would have".

However, this principle has not been transferred to the business field, where the rational part has been imposed over the emotional. The author himself recognizes it in his talks, assuring that few companies consider why they do things. They focus so much on reviewing the numbers that they forget about the spirit. They become so obsessed with the "what" and the "how much" that they forget the "why".

But the principles are as important as the results. Steve Jobs understood this perfectly. Beyond the shadows of his biography, the guru of Silicon Valley inspired in each speech, speaking always of dreams rather than technological benefits.

steve jobs

He turned the presentation of each device into a show, something that the other companies quickly imitated, splashed his corporate talks with inspiring phrases, putting in the foreground not only the economic balance of the company but its philosophy. And this remains more in the mind of the listener than a handful of numbers, this is what forges a leader. Of Jobs, we remember more his talk at Stanford University than his strategy to finance Apple or the deal with his colleagues.

The business philosophy has always been something important, it does not start or end with Jobs. But it is at this time, when the millennials begin to dominate the market, when its real impact is revealed. Several studies highlight the importance that this generation gives to the principles, philosophy and ethics of the companies, showing it as a determining factor to consume one or another brand.

The new generations demand leaders in all sectors. People who know how to lead battles, inspire and do something that goes beyond selling a product. Therefore, in the midst of political, economic and value crises, it is worth wondering the why behind certain elections. That is why it is worth looking for leaders who know how to build a better future.