So many people today have swallowed the values pill and say that companies *need* a clear set of positive values to succeed. Especially on the speaking or coaching circuit.
Bullshit. Companies have succeeded without articulating any values. Some with a set of insidious (and not articulated) values. Heck, some have grown profitable off the back of killing kids in countries where tobacco laws are more lax. Or selling weapons to dictators.
No, I look at it like the conversation our parents has had with us while we were growing up. The one where they told us that sometimes life’s not fair. That good things can happen to bad people, and vice versa.
For me, good company values are about two things. First, some things are simply the right things to do, full stop. Second, doing the right things repeatedly increases the probability of getting the right outcome. Probability. Not guarantee.
So if you’re a company founder or CEO, you get to choose. You can create a company that grows and succeeds purely in financial terms, without a thought to humanity or the planet. It is possible. Or you can create a company which defines its success not only in financial terms, but in what else it has brought to the people it touches.
Real choice. Which will you do?