Setting Company Core Values – Guide With Examples

Whilst the term “personal values” evokes solitary connotations, applying them to your business can be massively beneficial to your business strategy, business identity and development of yourself as a person. These principles called “core values” act like a compass, providing clarity and consistency when tough business choices arise, and can be the foundation of a strong company culture that promotes long-lasting customer relationships and success.

But how do we apply personal values to the business world? In this article, Real business will go over the many ways to apply and use company core values to improve decision-making, create strong leadership, and create a positive environment throughout the organisation.

Company Core Values Examples, And How They Helped Each Company

The following are examples of companies establishing core values and how they had a positive impact across the organisation:

• Salesforce – Customer success and innovation are two of the core values held by Salesforce, a company that creates cloud-based CRM software, ensuring companies can connect and help their customers with ease. In their view, customer success and company success are intertwined, and a long-term successful business strategy is about communication. To realise this, they invested heavy resources into the Trailhead and Success Plans learning platforms, optimising the efficiency of company software and reducing customer churn. Today, Salesforce dominates the CRM space, with over 150,000 companies relying on their services. Furthermore, Salesforce understands that the way the wind blows can change at the drop of a hat, and their innovation value allows them to constantly expand upon their service to stay ahead of the curve.
• Patagonia – Patagonia is a clothing company with values revolving around integrity, and environmental activism. Sustainability is not a marketing tool for this company, but rather an integral part of their company culture. They focus on sustainable sourcing, transparency, and reinforcing environmental protection by engaging in activism. Their strong company values have even led them to sue the U.S. government to protect public lands. Their public, above-and-beyond persona, makes them one of the best examples of company values today, weaving social and economic justice into their everyday practices. As a result, they have gathered many customers willing to pay their premium price, knowing where their money goes to.
• Ben and Jerry’s – Ben and Jerry’s likely needs no introduction. Their activism in social and economic justice has been amongst their core company values for a long while, being vocal advocates for causes such as racial equality, climate change and fair trade. Their leadership not only donates money but is also highly active in shaping politics by supporting strong, well-known social groups like Black Lives Matter before many companies preaching corporate values did. They are positioned as leaders of corporate values and responsibilities, strengthening their brand identity as a solely positive one, helping them achieve long-term profitability.
• Google – Google is another company that needs no introduction. Their core value is employee satisfaction, well-being and innovation. For a long time, Google has fostered a healthy work-life balance amongst its employees, being the front-runner for many new ideas of how work can be conducted flexibly. Their workplace environment is one of continuous learning and collaboration, fostering a healthy workplace that pursues innovation and can attract and retain top talent. At Google, you can expect on-site healthcare, and openness to many flexible working arrangements, and their investment in employee satisfaction has resulted in higher productivity.

 

How To Decide On Your Core Company Values

A company’s core values are not picked from a raffle, but rather, they are aligned with a successful business strategy. The best core values represent both an internal and external mode of being.

Know Your Company’s Market And Industry

First, think of your company’s mission. Many businesses, of course, want to make a profit – but with each industry comes specific key drivers of success, which should narrow down what your key values should be.

What are the key trends, challenges and customer expectations of your industry? What are the market drivers that have allowed other companies success? Combining the two of these creates a formula for strong company core values. Ensure that you write down a list, and keep them close. Whilst this alone can determine what your company’s core values are likely to be, polishing and refining them to suit your unique organisation is how you’ll get specific core values that will carry you for the long term.

For example, in retail and hospitality, customer satisfaction is the absolute king. Without it, you cannot beat the competition. In roles with heavy customer focus, your company mission is to make the customer as satisfied as possible, and this opens up a more focused path for your core company value.

Identify Core Differentiators

Identify what sets your company apart to give yourself the competitive advantage to bake into your company values. For example:

• Unique process – In what ways does your company differentiate itself through its processes? Are the possible methodologies available more efficient than your competitors? Are they more sustainable and innovative? A good example of a company realising its unique manufacturing ability is Toyota, through its “Lean Manufacturing” process. This focused on eliminating waste, improving efficiency and the implementation of a continuous improvement system named “Kaizen”. The process revolved around ditching anything that is not needed at a specific time through an inventory scheme known as “Just-In-Time”, revolutionising the efficiency of auto manufacturing.
• Customer-centric approach – Money is not what builds your business – customers are, and catering to them is where you can spell success for your business. Amazon is a perfect example of this, and has built its business strategy around the core value it calls “customer obsession”. Amazon sought to push the company forward by polishing every customer contact point and making the experience convenient and of high value. The development of Amazon Prime is a direct result of this reflection of company values, guaranteeing fast and reliable shipping, an excellent return policy, and a host of other benefits within a single subscription model.
• Technological innovation – The technology sector is present everywhere. With the advent and popularisation of smartphones, there is a digital, efficient option for nearly everything, with more innovative measures being added to take the friction out of interactions, to great reward. For many companies, this simply means using technology differently or taking advantage of technological trends, such as the popularisation of QR codes.

 

Assessing Internal Strengths

To add to what you’ve already gathered about your company and its place within your chosen industry, you should determine the internal strengths that will provide the foundation for your company’s core values.

This can be done in the following ways:

• Internal survey – This can only be done with the assistance of the employee experience, and what they believe to be the most stand-out examples of company strength. This can be done through surveys, including questions on what they value most about the workplace, how it differs from other similar roles, and where they see the most success in their work. Zappos, for example, despite having its strong core values already continues to gauge employee engagement and identify strengths in how it handles current customer service.
• Analyse performance – As a business owner, or higher up in the organisation, you should have access to performance data that details key metrics. Look at this quantitative data and try to determine where areas of your operations consistently perform well against its key performance indicators. Identify processes and departments which exceed expectations, or contribute the most to the company’s success. Google analyses the output of its 20% time initiative, where employees are encouraged to spend time on passion projects, which is in line with their core value of employee-driven innovation.
• Assess company culture – Identify cultural elements that contribute to employee and customer satisfaction by looking for patterns in feedback via surveys, exit interviews and Glassdoor reviews. Evaluate the strongest and most consistent elements, and strengthen them.
• Apply results against listed core values – Look at what your generalised, listed company’s values are, and apply the results of your internal strength assessment against them. This will provide alignment of your ideas and help refine them. For example, Salesforce’s commitment to customer success isn’t just a mode of conduct, but one fuelled by their strong, innovative Trailhead learning platform, amongst others.

 

Polishing Your Company’s Core Values

Now that you have a list and a reflection of your company and industry as a whole, it’s time to polish your company’s core values into something usable.

• Make values actionable – Look at your list of values. How do you make them actionable using your strengths to pursue the key drivers of your industry? By actionable, we mean a specified process by which you can conduct business with this focus, helping employees understand how to apply these values. For example, Disney creates the art that it does by following their core value of “creating happiness via magical experience”. This has led to many works of art, as well as a dedicated workplace across Disney amusement parks.
• Reflect on long-term relevance – Consistent core company values build brand identity, but there is a catch to this. Whilst your core values must be timeless, they must also be adaptable, as change is inevitable in the world of business, and those who capitalise on change have a huge advantage. Ask yourself how these values will hold 10 to 20 years from now, and how they’ll adapt to changes. Microsoft emphasised innovation and growth, initially, but then changed their core value to empowerment, as their operating systems came under threat of cloud computing and AI.
• Stakeholder feedback – From shareholders to low-level employees – get feedback on how well their proposed core values align with their working experience. When all stakeholders within a company unite, not only will you see an increased sense of teamwork and dedication, but your customer’s perspective will change to see it too.

 

In the end, the final stages of determining your core company values will revolve around the unique aspects of your own company. Compiling all you’ve learned together, it’s time to coin the term and communicate it throughout your company and all social outlets.

Communicating Company Core Values

Now that you have the concept of what your company’s core values are, it’s time to streamline the message into one that is reflected in the actions and words of your employees.

• Actionable values – Whilst we’ve touched on this before, employees must know exactly how to execute their company values during work. A good example of this is Google’s value of “Focus on the user and all else will follow”. It is wordy, but it’s also a mode of conduct that emphasises that the user must be catered to at all points, and most of the work is done.
• Onboarding process – A key part of an employee’s onboarding process should be coming into contact with, and understanding how to utilise your company’s core values. This allows newcomers to integrate the company’s core values from the start.
• Model values at leadership level – As a business owner, it’s important to understand that your company follows your lead. If you don’t embody what your company is about from top to bottom, your company cannot progress sustainably.
• Integrate values daily – Daily communication of your core values through internal communication, via team meetings, performance reviews etc. will solidify the idea further in your employee’s mind. Instead of simply using the term over and over, revolve your internal business dealings around them.
• Reward utilisation – For those who embody these core values and use them to great success, rewards and recognition. This sends a clear message – that following core values will improve their standing in the company.

 

Conclusion

All in all, the core values of your company are not a fad. It’s a foundational aspect of your company that will fuel the actions of your employees, and shape the experience of your customers. The most important thing is to not give up. Scrap and rebuild your company’s core values when they cease to work, and find a formula that will propel you forward.

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