In those times when maximum effort is not enough, and this happens to everyone and every enterprise, what heartens first is observing others — partners and competitors — who have endured the same condition and prevailed. In the cases where redemption eludes, the second point of heartening is the comfort found in venerating the one element that adheres to every vestige of an endeavor: values.
Enterprise values typically express the core beliefs, principles, and ethical standards of the organization. They should guide behavior. And they should influence the priorities, objectives, key results, and key performance indicators of the strategic plan — including the markets to pursue and how to treat employees and stakeholders. Values should give the strategic plan a spine, ensuring execution and growth remain workably consistent with the enterprise’s identity.
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When employees understand and embrace the values, and when they see the link between values and strategy, they can make day‑to‑day decisions and take actions that advance project quality and overall production. When teams act in ways that are counter to the value system, however, it affects not only the desired culture; it impedes strategic progress. In healthy enterprises, employee action ensures the strategy is executed in a way consistent with the enterprise’s values. In toxic environments, employees lose their way, wandering from the intended culture and weakening the bonds of trust among themselves and with stakeholders. In many of these cases, they are taking their cues from the top.
Enterprise leaders must do three things to help make the value system real — and set a path to employee participation in strategy execution.
First, leaders must set an example: decide that the coin of the realm is the value system and in every way — from hiring through dismissals and exits — set an example of professional regard, in front of people and behind closed doors. SAS Institute and Rolls-Royce are two enterprises working to make shared values systemic throughout their operations.
Second, leaders must constantly direct employee delivery back to the strategic plan: recognize the moments in which values are expressed in project results. At Google, where the strategic focus centers on artificial intelligence, search, and scalable digital services, the values of innovation and user focus seamlessly connect with the focus.
Third, leaders must build a brand identity that powerfully expresses the values and rises above the cliché: articulate results in ways that no other organization can claim. JPMorgan Chase publishes its core values in everything from the Code of Conduct to investor relations — expressing strategic priorities such as customer trust, risk management, long-term growth, and sustainable community impact.
Epic examples of misaligned values, strategy, and execution have marked the past century. Think of the much-invoked values of integrity, customer focus, respect, sustainability, and safety that were publicly and painfully refuted in accounting fraud, fake accounts, toxic cultures, faked emissions results, and dangerously poor quality control. They all reflect missed opportunities to set an example, link to strategy, and communicate passionately.
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For individuals and for organizations, the articulated system of values — once uttered, once coded — is more than a statement. The system is proof that you tried and evidence that you succeeded, if only for a moment. In an organization, when fealty to the values wavers, whether during an episode of miscalculation, or a blur in focus, or a deliberate Machiavellian move, successful professionals and enterprises travel past such episodes to acknowledge what is shared with many colleagues and collaborators: the motives are true and some aspect of the honor bestowed on each other lives on in positive energy, professional example, and profound commitment — the kind of dedication that should color every strategy, organizational or individual. It is this dedication to values and creating value that is the takeaway … and perhaps the most everlasting accomplishment of a strategy.
Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by Mary Trigiani, Advising at the intersection of strategy, narrative, and transformation.
At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide, in all stages of development, define and articulate what makes them competitive and valuable at pivotal moments of change. Please email us to learn how we can help you compete differently.
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