There are four critical issues preoccupying the boardrooms of both large and small companies around the world in the 21st century:

• How to attract and keep talented people?
• How to increase profits and shareholder value?
• How to increase creativity and productivity?
• How to ensure ethics permeate the corporate culture?

Building a successful corporate culture has become the most significant source of competitive advantage and brand differentiation in business today.

How important is organizational culture? Considering it has been demonstrated to affect outcomes as diverse as employee morale, performance, absenteeism, safety, recruiting, retention, quality of products or services, customer satisfaction and profits, a well-defined organizational culture can be the ultimate contributor to a high-performing and highly engaged workforce.

By creating an environment in which people are valued, developed and rewarded, organizations gain a significant competitive advantage and can begin to build a stronger, more loyal and more productive workforce.

"Values-driven companies are the most successful companies"

Why?

• Values drive culture
• Culture drives employee fulfillment
• Employee fulfillment drives customer satisfaction
• Customer satisfaction drives shareholder value

What Are Values and Why Are They Important?

Values are deeply held principles that people hold or adhere to when making decisions. Individuals express their values though their behaviours. Organizations express their values through their working culture. Research shows that there is a strong link between financial performance and the alignment of an organization’s operating values to the employees’ personal values.

“If you want your organization to consistently perform at peak levels, you need to become values-driven - a company that is characterized by strong alignment between individual values and corporate values; a company characterized by strong alignment between individual and group sense of mission; a place where the 'walk' matches the 'talk'.” - Grant Kvalheim, Co-President, Barclays Capital, New York