Here's why values ​​are so important in business

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There is a cynical and fairly popular view of business that "it's all about the money". You hear about the inside of business (sometimes in popular phrases such as "greed is good" or "business is business") and outside (from people who believe that there is something inevitably selfish or aggressive about business).

Although this point of view only describes a slice of reality, it is ultimately reductive and incomplete. The overall picture is more complex and nuanced.

To be successful over the long term, a business must continually deliver benefits to a range of stakeholders. Investors and employees, partners and customers, suppliers and even governments: everyone must benefit from the sustainability of a company to continue contributing to its growth and development. Continue to penalize any of these constituents, and the natural karmic wheel begins to turn, creating losses and offsetting gains both visible and not.

So how can successful businesses maintain this intertwined web of interests? Financial incentives undoubtedly play a role. The same goes for opportunities for engagement and personal growth. But there is also something deeper. Something that plays on people's sense of identity and fosters long-term, trusting relationships. Enter values.

Related: Why Core Values ​​Are So Important and How to Implement Them

In their simplest form, values ​​are basic principles that favor certain goals, attitudes, and actions over others. A value practiced by a person or group becomes a virtue of that entity. A team of 40 psychology researchers has identified six fundamental virtues that exist in virtually all cultures: wisdom, courage, empathy, justice, temperance and transcendence. In the world of organizations, classic examples of values ​​are Bridgewater's radical transparency, Navy SEAL ethics, and Band-Aid's safety standards.

To serve their purpose, values ​​impose preferences and priorities. They mean that when faced with trade-offs, you consistently prefer certain options and choices over others. A bunch of kind words that claim to value all that is good equally is not the same as a set of genuinely held core values. Values ​​imply commitment, sometimes even sacrifice.

Jim Collins, bestselling author of Good to Great, has spent decades studying the DNA of successful businesses. His team combed through mountains of data to complete their evidence-based comparisons. At the other end of this analysis, Collins writes that there is only one non-negotiable for any business that aspires to greatness. It's not a trendy strategy, overview or hack. It's something that seems a little old-fashioned, but the data shows is much more important: a company must have a set of core values ​​that don't change.

Here are four reasons why values ​​are so important in business:

Culture is more than office freebies, perks or fancy dress Fridays. It is made up of all the elements that make a company's reality consistent with its stakeholders - from the factors that truly guide its decisions, to its policies and working arrangements, to the team dynamics and tone that. ..