I’m a huge fan of Simon Sinek.<\/p>\n
In his book “Start With Why,” Sinek proposes that the best and most innovative companies and leaders have a strong sense of purpose, or “why”. And much of the success of the most innovative companies is due to their leaders abilities to inspire through clearly communicating the “why” of the organization.<\/p>\n
This inspiration then leads the team to develop systems, products, and processes (the “hows” and “whats”) to grow the company – while always remaining focused on the “why”. I know we reference Steve Jobs a lot here, but after all this page is about “disrupting” an industry, and Jobs is the poster child for disruption over the past several years. Jobs was a “why” guy – his sense of rebellion and desire to build products that empower the individual is what created the cult-like following of Apple.<\/p>\n
There are very few broadcast groups today that have a clear sense of “why”. I can tell you that the experience of working at Jacor Broadcasting in Tampa Bay was a perfect example of this principle in action. Our CEO Randy Michaels is a “why” guy, and that kept the entire company motivated to do great radio. What was the “why” at Jacor? Very simple – a creative environment where creative people can create. I remember a line similar to this in the one-page company policy manual. I’m not kidding – it was one page. And it talked about ensuring that we had a playful environment to foster creativity.<\/p>\n
And Randy is the perfect leader for a company dedicated to creativity. You actually looked FORWARD to corporate coming into town, because Randy would light the place up. The creative spark inside Jacor is something that I have only rarely seen since, and it’s because most radio companies have lost their “why”.<\/p>\n
I don’t know of too many companies in our industry that clearly articulate their “why”. Perhaps its because they don’t really have one. Sinek points out in his book that when once-successful companies go into decline, it’s usually because they lost their original sense of “why” and just focused on the top and bottom line (the “whats” and “hows”), and the slide continues until they either a) recapture their “why”, or b) go away.<\/p>\n
I’m concerned that without a clear sense of purpose, most of today’s big operators\u00a0have already chosen B.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m a huge fan of Simon Sinek. In his book “Start With Why,” Sinek proposes that the best and most innovative companies and leaders have a strong sense of purpose, or “why”. And much of the success of the most innovative companies is due to their leaders abilities to inspire through clearly communicating the “why” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i4nE-D","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":116,"url":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=116","url_meta":{"origin":39,"position":0},"title":"The Day Innovation Stopped","author":"admin","date":"March 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Where were you the day that innovation stopped? As someone who has been programming radio stations for a long time, I've been blessed to work with some of the best talent in the industry. I've also witnessed some massive mistakes made by upper management that are the roots of many\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=116#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137,"url":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=137","url_meta":{"origin":39,"position":1},"title":"Radio’s Greatest Era, or the Last Chapter?","author":"admin","date":"August 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Not a day goes by lately without more bad news for the radio industry. From major layoffs, more voice-tracking, eliminated positions, major heritage brands disappearing, to wild ratings swings, and bad quarterly revenue reports, it feels like the end of our industry is inevitable. 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Most have involved using some type of app to vote on what song should be next, and allowing listeners to somewhat program the radio station. Of course, there were always controls put on to prevent\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27,"url":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=27","url_meta":{"origin":39,"position":3},"title":"If Steve Jobs were a Program Director","author":"admin","date":"November 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"If Steve Jobs were a Program Director, you can bet that he would pay attention to every detail of his radio station. Every sweeper, every segue, every break would be meticulously designed. He would hire interesting and unusual people that actually had something to say. Not mindless drones that recite\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15,"url":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=15","url_meta":{"origin":39,"position":4},"title":"Quality versus Quantity","author":"admin","date":"November 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Money shouldn't be the goal - money is the reward you get for ACHIEVEMENT OF the goal. When you stop to think about how many successful companies understand this - big brands like Apple, \u00a0Google, Jet Blue, etc, you also quickly recognize how few radio companies understand this principle. \u00a0It's\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18,"url":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=18","url_meta":{"origin":39,"position":5},"title":"Budget Season","author":"admin","date":"November 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I used to dread budget season when I was a RVP of Programming at one of the big companies... mostly because it never made sense to me. 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