How important are company values to drive Agile Innovation?

Every year jobs and career site Glassdoor publishes the Top 10 Companies to Work for, as ranked by employees. Over the years, it’s not hard to predict who will make the list, as most organisations in the list are the “large” innovative technology and consulting organisations, like FaceBook, Google, LinkedIn, AirBnB, BCG, Bain & Co, etc.

 Although, these companies are well known for their company culture, the company core values are less known, but these are probably more important to create these innovation “powerhouses”. With a continuous focus on being innovative, it’s crucial for the employees of these organisations to work in an environment where the company values support this consumer-focussed innovation.

 After reviewing the company values of these Top 10 Companies, it’s is interesting to find next to the “standard” company values, like integrity, respect and trust, the following additional values:

• Collaborative environment,
• Act like a business owner/ entrepreneur,
• Bring ideas to life, introduce the Art of the Possible, be creative,
• Focus on results, demand excellence, be goal oriented, win,
• Do the right thing for your clients, community, colleagues, etc.
• Be transparent and risk tolerant.

These extraordinary company values clearly show the additional focus on entrepreneurial ownership through which employees are “expected” to deliver exceptional innovation and results. A number of these organisations use “supporting company values” to highlight the need to use intelligent risk, transparency, effectiveness and prioritising the right “details”, to deliver the exceptional innovation.

Agile Innovation is very much aligned to these company values, which allow employees to work in collaborative self-organised teams to take ownership in delivering effective innovative, customer-focussed solutions, ultimately delivering sustainable long-term growth and profitability for the organisation.

Even though, every organisation is using different company values to create an innovative organisation, it’s important to highlight how important the selection of the right company values has on creating an innovative culture, as more employees demand that innovation and continuous learning is a key part of their employee value proposition…

For more information, please visit Agile Innovation

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