Ikigai and What It Means for Your Business
Running and growing your business is no easy task. You have an endless to-do list of daily essentials, and on top of it all, you’re trying to build a brand and grow your reputation. How do you keep moving in the right direction?
There is a Japanese concept known as “ikigai,” and it could be the key to staying focused and having a cohesive vision for your company. Let’s take a closer look at ikigai and how it can be a game-changer for your business.
What Is Ikigai?
Ikigai is a Japanese concept that roughly translates to “a reason for being.” In essence, your ikigai is your “why,” or your ultimate mission as a business.
A person’s ikigai typically includes what they love, what they’re good at, what they can be paid for or what value they can bring, and what the world needs from them. When a person has a unified ikigai that they live by, it gives them a clearer direction in their life and a stronger sense of purpose.
How Can You Put Ikigai to Use for Your Business?
An ikigai can be a great tool for personal development, but it also has the power to transform your business. It can serve as a unifying mission statement that guides you as your business grows. That only happens if you know how to use your ikigai correctly, though. Follow these steps to make the most of this concept.
Define Your Ikigai
For starters, you need a clear idea of what your business’s ikigai is. A great way to do this is by freely writing or talking through these four questions:
What is your passion?
What is your mission?
What is your profession?
What is your vocation?
As you ask yourself these questions, start to blend them together and work a singular, unified idea or statement that will become your ikigai. This statement should be a centralized definition of who your business is, the place it fills in the world, and its overarching purpose.
Infuse Your Ikigai Into Your Brand
Your ikigai is more than a concept you should live by as you grow your business. It should be entirely intertwined with your brand.
For example, let’s say your business is a graphic design firm. In defining your ikigai, you realize that you get the most fulfillment from watching new companies thrive because of your work. You then decide that your ikigai is to use your passion and skills for design to build your local economy by empowering small businesses in your area.
Now that you have this focus, you can put it into play in your brand. You could make your brand hyper-local and cultivate a brand that embodies helpfulness, collaboration, and growth.
Create a Well-Defined Brand Strategy
You’ve defined your ikigai and defined your brand with that ikigai in mind. The next step is to create a well-crafted branding strategy so you can start publicizing and building that brand.
Your brand strategy will detail ways you can communicate your brand to your customers. It will specify the visual branding elements that give the first impression you’re aiming for, and it outlines an action plan for making your brand more visible.
Make sure you use this brand strategy to guide your large-scale business decisions as well as your day-to-day interactions. Think of it as a blueprint for creating and continuously reinforcing your brand.
Get Your Staff on the Same Page
Unless you have a one-person business, you aren’t the only person who will affect your brand and the way it’s perceived. Every time a customer sees, hears about, or interacts with your business, it affects the way they think of your brand.
For that reason, you need to get your staff on board. Gather them together and explain your ikigai and the brand you want to cultivate. Discuss the way they interact with customers and how they can make sure their actions and words align with your brand.
Keep in mind that this might be difficult for some people to grasp at first. Observe them and give them feedback about how they could more thoroughly embody your brand.
How to Take the First Step
Defining your ikigai and merging it into your brand can give you an unparalleled sense of purpose and direction, no matter how much your business grows. However, your ikigai will only help you if you put it into action.
To get started with that process, contact our brand strategists. Our experienced team will help you form your brand based on your ikigai, your customers, and other key considerations.
We’ll then create a clear brand strategy so you have a practical guide for communicating and building your brand. By following that brand strategy and living by your ikigai, you’ll help your business thrive while enjoying a more fulfilling sense of purpose.
