Core values are what support the vision, shape the culture and reflect what the company is about. But you need to make sure your values add up.
Values aren’t just something whose initial letters conveniently spell out your company name. They drive the way we influence, how we interact with each other, and how we work together to achieve results and contribute to our competitive advantage.
Are values a soft option?
Levi Strauss & Co uses the same statement of purpose which it made in 1873 when it started production of the first-ever blue jeans which is ‘to deliver profits through principles to make an outsize impact on the world.’ However, how this is expressed and embodied by its values has moved with the times.
“What we’ve learned is that the soft stuff and the hard stuff are becoming more intertwined. A company’s values what it stands for, what its people believe in are crucial to its competitive success. Indeed, values drive the business.” – Robert Hass, when CEO and Chairman of Levi Strauss (1990).
Robert Hass shared this insight following a fiveyear period in which sales increased by 31%, and profits rose fivefold to $272 million.
Should organisational core values be set in stone?
Absolutely not, values are dynamic to context and should keep in pace with business growth. Some of your values may never change, but others will as the outside world and internal people around the business change. It is good business practice to revisit, revitalise and share core values regularly and to double check they still align with who you are and where you’re going.
Do values pay?
In 2015 research published in the European Journal of Management set out to answer the burning question ‘will articulating your values pay off?’ There are a variety of theories which suggest that having articulated core values makes it easier to attract the talent you are looking for, inspires greater confidence in stakeholders and investors, and helps organisations be more agile in an increasingly complex and uncertain world.
The researchers studied the stated organisational values of 92 companies listed in the Fortune 100 and compared those findings to recognised measures of performance including profitability. And here’s what they found;
-Companies with stated core values perform better than those without.
-Companies with 5 or 6 core values do better than those with 3 or 4.
-Companies with different values to their competitors do better than those with similar values. Proving that a ‘maverick’ set of values performs better than the common soundbite type values.
-Companies who refresh and revisit their values do better than those who don’t
So where does that leave us? Every person and every organisation (which is after all is a collection of people) has a pattern of priority values which shape their actions and attitudes every day: there is no choice in that. The decision lies in whether you want to connect to that driving force or not: and if you do, this research tells us how to make that connection work to your advantage.
If you think working with values is just soft, perhaps it’s time to think again!
You can hear more about ‘The Value of Values’ from nesma associate, Jackie Le Fèvre, at the People Power Event at Northumbria University on 12 June, or you can sign up for her workshops starting in May at our study centre in Gosforth. If managing the whole big picture is something that has just landed in your lap it might be worth looking at the CIM Marketing Leadership Programme which will help you navigate your way through the whole strategic competitive advantage pathway which has a start date of July.
