Core Values

Introduction:
Every company, big or small, has core values. Core values are the basis upon which the members
of a company make decisions, plan strategies, and interact with each other and their stakeholders.
Core values reflect what is important to the organization and its members.
The core values of a company are intrinsic - they come from leaders inside of the company. Core
values work the same way for a company as they do for a family. For example, one family may
value hard work and saving money, and another family may value travel and exploration. Even
starting with the same resources, each family will make different decisions and plan different
strategies based on its core values.
Core values are not necessarily dependent on the type of company or industry and may vary
widely, even among organizations that do similar types of work. According to some management
scholars, companies that stray from their core values may not perform as well as those that
adhere to them. However, for many companies, adherence to their core values is a goal, not a
reality.
Activity Description:
We were given 2 set of core values, we were instructed to mark each set in the ascending order
from 1 to 18 individually on the basis of our own core values. 15 minutes were given to complete
each set. After the individual task, groups were formed and each group was instructed to mark
the groups core values from 1 to 18. And then all the groups were given a situation that if we
have to make a cake of core values, then what percentage of which core values will be there in
the cake.
Reflections:
This activity was really interesting in order to understand how group influences our core values.
During the individual activity, when I was rating my core values, it was relatively easier than the
group work because at that time all group members core values were getting challenged.
someones core prior core value cant be everybodys core value. Someone can value honesty
over equality, while somewhere it can differ. When a company is formed by some people, it is no
longer someone's individual property, and hence core values of company changes on which
company works. My individual rating was very different from the groups rating for eg. I marked
Imaginative as 1st while during discussion we decided that ambitious should at the top, so I had
to change it because it was the group decision as a whole, at some point someone had to
compromise and listen to others valid point. While working in a group we get a broader picture
and different perspective which sometimes is very to make any decisions. We evaluated each
core values to decide groups core belief or values then separated what is important and
acceptable because after this these core values will guide us to the moral of our group.
In our dream organisation which was the home organizers, it was based on the groups core
competencies that was creativity. So we made a company/organization using that skill that will
efficiently provide customers effective ways to use their house. We included those services in
which we were good at. Even one of our mission was to build an organization that expresses the
core values that are shared by the majority of employee in the organization.
We actually didnt gave so much importance and time in deciding core competencies while
designing the organization. We just bunch of friends came together, formed a group, and
discussed for a while came to the decision that we would be making home organizers company.
We should have first thought about our core competencies individually before discussing about
groups competency, then we could have got a better picture of groups strength and values. Core
values are important in an company, it gives a clear picture about how to do it, why to do it. We
mainly focused on the ways how to get maximum profit and money, in a very short time, our
main focus was to have a successful company instantly and meanwhile we ignored the fact that
core values are equally important in a company. We can see that in general business world,
people who are interested in money and nothing else, but the underlying drives come largely
from a desire to do something else; to make a product, to give a service- generally to do
something which is of value.
Finally, values have a relationship to an organizations strategy. Strategy is the plan leaders put
in place to achieve their mission. As leadership teams conduct strategic planning, they rightfully
focus on how well they have performed against their goals.
While core values that are a true reflection of the best leadership has to offer can and will last a
very long time, they are not immutable. Industries and societies evolve over time, and this can
have an effect on the relevance of an organizations values, and cause leadership to re-evaluate
their values.
Creating groups core values could be our most important work, but the first step will always be
to recast your vision or mission into effective context for building a visionary company. Major
limitation of our dream organization was that we looked only at the core competencies but not at
the core values. We determined at what we are good at but we failed to capture where we
understand and why we exist. A well-conceived vision consists of two major components: core
values and envisioned future i.e., vision. The core values is unchanging while the envisioned
future what we aspire to become, to achieve, to create keeps on changing when one goal is
achieved.