Words and Values

By Sean Fenlon on December 28, 2007

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Perhaps the most over-written and over-spoken word in the business world today is the word “value.”

But what exactly does the word “value” mean? That’s the first of several big questions.

The word “value” might refer to:

• mathematic value
• personal/cultural value
• economic value
• value theory
• marketing value
• computer science value
• law
• etc

But what are “valueS“?! (intentionally plural)

Well, even Google doesn’t know that one for sure.

Well, here’s my own personal answer…

1. For mathetmatic systems, “values” are the lowest common denominators
2. For people, “values” are their ethos
3. For businesses, “values” are their “CORE values”

Speaking of Core Values, my friend and Adchemy CEO Murthy Nukala posted his company’s (6) Core Values and provided an excellent post around them.

By a strange coincidence, DoublePositive also recently re-affirmed our (6) Core Values this month:

1. Act with the utmost integrity
2. Encourage an environment of candor and mutual respect
3. Demonstrate a commitment to excellence and strive for the ultimate efficiencies
4. Leverage technology and strategy
5. Stay hungry
6. Reward great thinking and great ideas

These Core Values are posted on the home page of the DoublePositive corporate intranet, and team members can see them several times per day. But they don’t need to — I know them all personally and its already in their DNA. But then again, I’m biased. ;-) However, I hope and expect to maintain the same “bias” with any future team member as well.

Many smart minds have speculated that if we knew more about the relationships between “Words” and “Values,” we would know a lot more about the universe than we do today — things are not always what they seem (an important and popular fact).

SPF

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