For an organization to be effective it needs to demonstrate consistency in the way it values people, customers and suppliers.

Having a written and clearly understood set of values can make all the difference.

What is a Value?

A value is a belief, a mission, or a philosophy that is really meaningful to the company.

An example of a business value is: "Customer Satisfaction." Another example of a value is "Being Ethical and Truthful." Every company has one or more values, whether they are consciously aware of it or not.

Another way of saying it is that a value is a statement of the company's intention and commitment to achieve a high level of performance on a specific qualitative factor.

What a Value Consists of
When defining a value for your company, it's a good idea to try to describe it in detail.  For example, a company may adopt the value "Customer Delight." That's the value's name.

The description for the value could be something like: "We recognize that in today’s highly competitive market providing excellent service is not sufficient to satisfy customers and ensure their loyalty. Our goal is to convert the customer’s interaction with our company into a thoroughly and unforgettably enjoyable experience." You are describing how the value can uplift a company in general, or your company in particular. 
 

To fully implement and thus institutionalize a value in a company the following steps need to all occur:

1. SELECTION -- Choose the values that you are interesting in fully implementing in the company.

2. COMMITMENT -- There needs to be a full commitment to implement the chosen values. Senior and middle management, and other employees need to fully commit to those values; commit to improving performance on those values.

3. STANDARDS -- A set of standards for each activity in the company needs to be implemented for each value.

4. STRUCTURE -- The company needs to have the right structure (of job positions, divisions, departments, etc.) to implement the values.

5. JOBS, ACTIVITIES & SYSTEMS -- The company must have clearly defined job positions, activities, and streamlined systems to facilitate to implement the values. Values need to be incorporated into every job position, activity, every system. Standard operating procedures and even individual job position tasks need to be linked to these values.

6. EMPLOYEE RESPONSIBILITY -- The responsibility of each person to implement each value must be clearly defined and understood (e.g. in their job orientation, in their job descriptions, from their manager, etc.).

7. SKILLS -- Everyone must have the skills to achieve high performance on the values. Everyone must have the skills they need to fulfil their responsibilities for the value. If necessary, additionally training should be implemented to upgrade the skills for value implementation.