In tough economic times, when sales are hard to come by, companies look inward to cut costs. Marketing budgets often are cut along with sales people. Another approach that is rarely taken, but can create substantial savings is to address the company's core values. Companies do not stress their values enough in their bid to be a competitive entity in their market. These values are not buzz words, or words that represent market conditions. These values are ideas that are rooted in the company and do not change. If the company was to change directions or change markets these values should stay the same. Core values are ideas/attributes like integrity, honesty, creativity, social responsibility and so on.
Why are these values so important? Values are important and when they are not upheld in the company starting at the top, they lose their meaning. If the CEO or President does not abide and live by the values, then the values are seen as not important and that notion trickles down to the bottom. Being the owner of a small company I have seen this and felt this first hand. I understand and have seen that profitability starts with core values. If a person does not follow the values of the company than their employment with the company must be evaluated and possibly terminated. This is a true life example of how values define a company and create its competitiveness. There is a client of mine that deeply adheres to its values. This company receives shipments, has a full 10,000 sq. ft. warehouse and creates shipments from its warehouse. This warehouse operates with incredible efficiency and with only 4 people. The core values of this company are truth, integrity and organization. Everyone working this company must adopt and follow these core values if they want employment. Because each employee in the warehouse follows these values they are able to unload shipments, stock their items and create a shipment in records times. Each person trusts the other to do their standard procedures every time. If someone unloads a shipment and places the shipment in location that is not in the standard procedure, but maybe the most convenient location then they are breaking one of the core values of the company, organization. This one error wastes time and energies when trying to put together a shipment. Repeats of this action create the need for inventory counts which is very expensive. If the problem is left unchecked or if the problem is covered up then the owner will believe he needs to hire a person to help facilitate the stocking of the warehouse. This causes a decrease in profits and competitiveness. In reality, if repeat errors occur and it is not a break down in standard procedures, but an error in following the values then this person must be replaced. If someone in the company creates a report that depicts a situation that is not entirely true that person is breaking the values and that issue must be addressed. If the situation is left unchecked then the executives may make wrong decisions based on wrong reporting. If someone is causing issues for political reasons within the company, to possibly get ahead, then this person is breaking the company's values and it must be addressed. When core values are broken and not addressed then the consequences rapidly build up causing the company to lose profits and competitiveness in the market. Poor business decisions are made because core values were not followed. Core values are not words that are placed on a web page or hung over head in the meeting room. Core values continually shape the direction of the company.
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