HELP! Company core values?

[cjsmith]

I'm supposed to write an essay on a company and its core values. Help! Please! Does anyone know a company who actually publishes core values?

Problem 1: The essay is not complete without a printout of the company's own statement of their core values, possibly from the Web. Companies I know anything about don't have time for that kind of crap. (I have worked for a lot of companies, and I have done a lot of Web searching. I had no idea how hard this would be to find.)

Problem 2: I need to be able to talk about how the company does or doesn't live up to those values. I can't pick Western Widget Incorporated unless there's a metric buttload of obvious core-values-related news about it at my little Google-enabled fingertips.

Any ideas out there? Pretty please?

EDIT: Thank you everybody!! I've been too hung up on thinking I had to find a place I had worked for or had known a lot about beforehand. I can get started now!

Comments

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

http://www.grumman.com/corporate-responsibility/index.html

http://www.northropgrumman.com/corporate-responsibility/ethics/our-vision-values-and-behaviors.html

http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2005/may/i_letters.html

[dangerpudding.livejournal.com]

Has to be a company, or can it be an organization? Cause I can offer this: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/about/our-core-values

And boy is there lots of data about what GP does out there. Plus archive.greenpeace.org has everything else.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That's excellent! I'm not sure whether it has to be a company. I was thinking of Habitat for Humanity for a while, too. That link is exactly the kind of thing I need! I wonder if I can do Greenpeace instead of some for-profit corporation...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh cool! That second link is exactly the sort of thing I bet my professor wants to see. Of course, I know zip about Northrop Grumman, but if Google will help me out on that score... Thanks!

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

http://www.livejournal.com/site/about.bml

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh my GOODNESS. Why did it never occur to me to look for LJ's? I think I must be brain dead today, or something.

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

Forest/trees?

[wcg.livejournal.com]

The bottom of this page (http://www.online.citibank.co.in/portal/generic.jsp?stringID=newgenbean1&contentID=cbxcareoptgrowpg&contentType=PSDisplayContent&viewID=MY_PORTAL_VIEW) lists Citibank's core values. They are a strong work ethic, a sharp focus on idea generation, encouraging independent initiative, and a bias for action.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Probably. I have been all hung up on sentence 1 of the assignment, which states that I must choose a company I "admire or work for". That's a toughie. I've worked for a lot of startups, but they haven't been mature enough for "company values" statements; I work for one vet clinic, and the closest they've got is a mission statement, which miiiiiiiight work.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you! All you guys are coming up with stuff in moments, and I've been stuck on this for (mumble now I'm embarrassed). What is WRONG with me??

(OK, I know what part of the problem is; the assignment limits it to a company I "admire or work for", and I've been thinking I had to work for a place to know enough to comment on whether it lives up to its values.)

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

You could claim to admire LJ...or would that be unethical?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* I could at least try to write knowledgeably about LJ. I can just skip mentioning which category (employee or admirer) I'm in. :-)

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

If you're on the supporthelp communities...that might count!

[nosrednayduj]

You could always pick Google: "Don't be evil". Which they've tended to be sometimes, so you could natter on about China and stuff.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Me, I don't for one minute believe Google is 100% non-evil. If I wanted to choose what I'd perceive as an excellent and challenging topic for this essay, I might question whether any company whose goal is to have the world's data in their own little hands can remain non-evil. It'd be a great challenge for me to think about that and write it up.

Sadly, I'm a little leery of picking Google because it's such an icon. It might be hard to describe just how large Google looms in the cultural consciousness of Silicon Valley. It's been mentioned at least once every single class period since the beginning of the quarter. The professor has a very firm idea of who and what she thinks Google is, and the only thing I'm sure about is that a business communications specialist's view of Google is going to be nothing like mine. I can say what I think Google is, but I'm neither a speech major nor a business major, so if I'm "wrong" I have a big hill to climb and few skills to climb it. It's a lot safer to pick someplace no one has heard of.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

I'd link to the values my company has. But personally I don't think much of them.

[mapache]

Well, in case you want it: http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html

(Also, at this point, I feel the need to bring up the distinction between "Don't be evil" and "Do no evil". The latter is an unreasonably high standard for all actions, while the first is about overall intent.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I still think I'm safer picking something obscure, but it's cool to have the actual statement (which is, of course, a lot more rich and nuanced than the oft-quoted motto).

You raise a good point about "Do no evil". I agree that that's an unreasonably high standard, and it may well be that I've been thinking of "Don't be evil" as essentially equivalent. For the essay I'm not writing (but would honestly prefer to write if the risk were lower), that's a big piece for me to think through.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Sadly, that's all too common. One of the things I'm supposed to write about is how well the organization I chose lives up to the values they say they espouse. According to the textbook for my course, many employees are less impressed with their company's ethical standards after the company publishes a statement of values. That says a lot. :-(

[oddhack.livejournal.com]

I recommend to your (hopefully snarky) attention Enron's "Vision and Values" statement (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=8&url=http%3A%2F%2Fegade.sistema.itesm.mx%2Finvestigacion%2Fsekn%2Fpdfs%2FEnron.doc&ei=Wlj1ScGlFZe6sgO_yuT1Cg&usg=AFQjCNEbPBvsMNpKPFygcBgFD4O_bgC2mw&sig2=FxX0oaq-Qa5AhZ-BvKiV2A):

Values

Respect: We treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. We do not tolerate abusive or disrespectful treatment. Ruthlessness, callousness and arrogance don't belong here.

Integrity: We work with customers and prospects openly, honestly and sincerely. When we say we will do something, we will do it; when we say we cannot or will not do something, then we won't do it.

Communication: We have an obligation to communicate. Here, we take the time to talk with one another…and to listen. We believe that information is meant to move and that information moves people.

Excellence: We are satisfied with nothing less than the very best in everything we do. We will continue to raise the bar for everyone. The great fun here will be for all of us to discover just how good we can really be.


(Well, they did kinda "raise the bar", in the sense of elevating it to neck height for stockholders to run into...)

[steph-2012.livejournal.com]

Nordstrom used to publish their core values. At least they did back when I had to write a similar paper and give a presentation about it.