PACMAN and The Golden Circle

PACMAN and The Golden Circle

The Golden Circle is a concept developed by Simon Sinek and in my opinion is a wonderful business model formulated in the recent times. The model is very simple and is something that startups should bear in mind before considering entry into any market. The model is substantial and is applicable to all geographies and to any and every business.

Simon Sinek points out that most of the companies state their propositions from a “WHAT” perspective. For e.g. what their product is? This is followed by “HOW” For e.g how they produce? And finally reach a “WHY” they do it?

 Instead he quotes that every business should work the other way round. Every business should start from a “WHY” perspective. I will introduce this analogy from Simon Sinek with PACMAN. PACMAN is a game developed in 1980 by NAMCO a Japanese company and is considered to be the best arcade game developed in the history of games. It is also the most successful game, the first to break the geographic barriers and is played extensively across the world. Let’s look at the success of PACMAN from a Golden Circle perspective.

The following dialogue is presented from NAMCO’s voice

 Why?

 We (NAMCO) developed the PACMAN game to present itself as a company that can develop simple games which can break geographic barriers, gender barriers and become a favorite pastime. (Back then arcade games were generally played by the male population and mostly in Japan)

How?

We (NAMCO) chose all the characters in the game, their colors particularly to appeal for both genders. The PACMAN (pie) is strategically chosen and colored yellow so it can replicate the eating habits of Pizza. Eating pizzas was one of the favorite pastimes in 1980s. PACMAN employed the best developers and made it available across all geographies.

What?

PACMAN – happens be the best arcade game ever from us. Do you want to try it?

NAMCO couldn’t have started from WHAT to achieve this success. NAMCO couldn’t have said what do we want to make? And come up with PACMAN as an answer.