In the course of deciding, “Who we are and where we are going”, many companies also have come up with a statement of values to guide the company’s pursuit of its vision. By values, we mean the beliefs, business principles, and practices that are incorporated into the way the company operates and the behavior of the company personnel. Company values statements tend to contain between four and eight values, which ideally, are tightly connected to and reinforce the company’s vision, strategy, and operating practices. Company managers connect values to the strategic vision in one of two ways:
- In companies with long-standing and deeply entrenched values, mangers go to great lengths to explain how the vision is compatible with the company’s value set, occasionally reinterpreting the meaning of existing values to indicate their relevance in pursuing the strategic vision.
- In new companies or companies with weak or incomplete sets of values, top management considers what values, beliefs, and operating principles will help drive the vision forward.
Sometimes there is a wide gap between a company’s stated values and its actual conduct.
CORE CONCEPT: A company’s values are the beliefs, business principles, and practices that guide the conduct of its business, the pursuit of its strategic vision, and the behavior of company personnel.
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