More than ever, company values are vital. Vital for companies to establish. Vital for companies to apply internally, And vital for companies to apply adroitly.
While many company leaders easily dismiss the need to establish company values, the establishment and astute application of core company values lays down one of the foundation stones that can ultimately mean the difference between a company with poor-to-satisfactory business results on the one hand and a remarkable, outstanding company of true industry leadership, easily and regularly recognised as being an impressive brand with impressive financial performance, and which becomes ever so difficult to knock off its leading industry perch, on the other hand. Company values have the potential to uniquely distinguish a company from its competitors.
It’s true that not all business managers aspire for remarkable outcomes for their companies. Those who do, however, will likely recognise the imperative of appropriate, strong company values to sustain and propel business activities. In our era of an increasingly competitive, disruptive economic and industry environment, both locally and globally, this imperative takes on new import. The game of business can, after all, be played with additional strategic leverage. Well determined, well-applied company values can ultimately become THE defining and critical edge that one company may develop and maintain over all of its competitors in the market, a winning card able to be repeatedly played in the competitive game, regardless of any other cards available to be dealt from time to time.
A company’s core values are the values which, if applied capably and applied consistently, will ultimately filter through all that the company does. In the process, such values gain considerable potency when they consequently become entrenched as core parts of what people (customers and other external parties alike) experience and interpret as “what the company is” and “what the company stands for”. Through their repeated and consistent application, the core values of a company become instantly recognisable as the brand values of the company.
Company Values Must Be Applied
But company values should not be decided upon just to be set-and-forget adornments to a business entity, as if they are simply nice-to-have et ceteras that can then be ignored from any practical perspective. Rather, they need to be adopted, firstly at the highest level within the company, and then applied and enforced right throughout the entity, right through all other levels of the entity. The “value” of the values is in their application, not in their mere existence. The “value” of the values is in how they become integrated into all decision-making processes so that they influence all that the entity does. Their effect then flows into the experiences that customers have of the company and brand. And into the experiences that all other external parties have of the company and brand, too.
Company Values Must Be Applied Consistently
With company values, especially core company values, consistency of application is crucial. Without consistency, any value becomes readily undermined. The strength of the perception by customers and others lies in the consistency of the experiences that they have.
Consistency of experience carries considerable integrity connected intrinsically to perceptions of the company. When a customer experiences efficient service many times, and then slack service on even one occasion, the customer may very easily come to doubt the capability of the company to deliver efficient service again. Such doubts can then persist or linger for some considerable time thereafter. Any exception to all previous experiences can cast a shadow where only light may have fallen previously. Consistency of experience is vital. So the consistency of application of company values that underlies that experience is vital to the company brand.
The brand is not what you might want or expect it to be: the brand is the perceptions that those outside of your company have that extend from their experiences of your company brand. And your consistency as a company in your interactions with others attests to how much you and your team subscribe to the values you purport to uphold. Your level of consistency, then, is your level of integrity in relation to your values.
Astute leaders creating great companies won’t bypass the creation and integration of a well-selected, well-thought-through set of company brand values. They know inherently that a considerably united direction from all employees on the company team is fundamental to the creation of that greatness.
In this business era of many pressures and disruptions, it can be all too easy to bypass the need for company brand values. Yet the most discerning of leaders understand the vital nature of enduring values to guide the actions of the people within their companies, the people who collectively create, through the accumulation of their actions, the brand that becomes, and can then endure as, the company brand ━ a brand with superior results in the markets in which it plays.
And, for you and your team, since you can, why not play at a level of higher quality strategy? Then you can engage in a far more impressive adventure!
Lloyd Conrade B.Bus.
Chief Visionary Officer
