Your Value Statement:

Develop a Definition of Values in Your Business

A value statement needs to be part of your business HR strategic planning process. Your definition of values (including values, morals, ethics and integrity) needs to be the heart of your strategy, your business culture and your hiring and management policies.

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Value statements are intended to provide the organization with a structure or a foundation from which the business will operate.

Business values or culture guide you in managing your business and they also provide a framework for key stakeholders (your employees, your customers, and your suppliers).

Build a statement that reflects values you support and stay focused on the type of corporate culture you want in your business when writing business plans.

Develop your statement through the Human Resources (HR) Strategic Planning Process. Including the statement as part of your simple business plan outline will help you keep your values in focus, and in the plan.

Ensure that your small business management is aligned with your company's values, as well as your mission and vision statements.

For example, when decisions need to be made make sure that you make those decisions in the context of your values. If you need to reduce spending do you lay-off staff or do you cut in other areas first? If you need to choose between one supplier and another (and price and quality is equal) do you select the supplier that has values similar to yours?

Communicate your values from the front office to the back office of your organization. All of your employees need to understand what your company stands for and how your values relate to your business. It's a good idea to post your vision, mission and values statements where all your employees, and even other stakeholders, can see them.

Business owners who understand what they value, also understand the positive impact their statements will have on decision making, effective problem solving, managing change, resolving conflict, and leadership.

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A value statement for your business environment might read as follows:

We will:

• Conduct our business with integrity;

• Strive for excellence in all we do;

• Embrace continuous improvement;

• Treat all stakeholders with dignity and respect;

• Allow our customers to define quality;

• Display reliability and consistency by delivering what we promised, when we promised;

• Commit to a learning culture.

Whatever values you define important (and the above list is just a sampling of what you might value), needs to be included in your statement.

But don't make it a long 'shopping list' of items that sound good but you will never act on.

Keep your focus on what you believe in and what you want your employees to commit to.

And make sure that your values are in alignment with your vision statement.

Your statement should become part of your Strategic Plan to ensure that you build those values into how you plan to operate your business.

This statement is your business' commitment to operating with honesty, values, morals, ethics, integrity and your commitment to social and environmental concerns.

Make your statement meaningful to you and your business. And then make sure you consistently operate your business in alignment with those values.

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Read more the relationship of analyses to strategy in your business:

Return to Strategy.

Or return from Value Statement to More For Small Business Home Page.

Build a specific Small Business Strategy to achieve your goals.

Review the criteria required to build a Value Chain Analysis for your business.