Lots has been written about corporate values. For many employees, “corporate values” are little more than words on a wall somewhere; an expensive boondoggle concocted to showcase How Awesome {BrandX} Really Is. In the worst cases, the plaque on the wall only serves to highlight how shallow the values were in the first place.
I’ll hazard a completely unscientific guess and suggest that the majority of American small businesses, the ones that drive our economy, don’t have corporate values written down at all. When you’re a 4-man landscaping crew, writing down a bunch of “corporate values” doesn’t count for nearly as much as busting your butt to get the sprinklers installed and the trees in the ground before dark.
I can also definitely tell you what values really drive most companies I know. In-N-Out just makes awesome burgers and fries. BJ Plumbing will sell you any plumbing or sprinkler part you need, then show you how to install it. Weber means barbecue. Fezzari is out to make the best bikes on the mountain. And on and on and on.
The values of these companies are obvious. Sure, they’re out to make a profit. Everyone’s gotta eat. But these companies don’t exist just to make money; they make money because they exist. And they exist because the people who work at them really care about what they’re doing. Even those 17-year old kids working at In-N-Out care about what they’re doing. Maybe they don’t aspire to be burger-flipping magnates, but I have literally never seen an employee at In-N-Out who didn’t seem genuinely happy to be at work.
So there’s a big part of me that’s suspicious of people who talk about writing down corporate values. I suppose that’s because it seems that if you have to write them down they’re not really your values and that if they really are your values then nobody needs them written down.
But there are some companies that seem to get their values right. One of the first I became aware of is Moz, an inbound marketing and SEO firm out of Seattle that lives and breathes by its corporate value statement, TAGFEE (check out the explanation from Moz’s CEO and founder, Rand Fishkin). Whole Foods, Zappos, and Netflix are other examples that come to mind. Right or wrong, agree with them or not, these companies infuse their values into every aspect of their work.
There are a few values that are essential to this movement I’m trying to build:
- People first. Whatever we do, the company is here first and always to make life less difficult for its customers and its employees.
- Quality. No one will ever have a legitimate reason to complain about the quality of the service or the goods we deliver.
- Respect. We are honest, reliable, and courteous. Every time.
Hopefully it won’t take a plaque on a wall for people to see them.
