A Company Vision with Purpose: Shared Values Make Strategy Stick

In Harvard Business Review, Robert E. Quinn and Anjan V. Thakor tell the story of a utility whose profits soared only after leaders rewrote their vision around “serving communities with clean energy.” Employees suddenly volunteered ideas that saved $200 million.(hbr.org) The lesson travels well: purpose isn’t a slogan; it’s a growth lever.

Yet most founders race to market with no written values or a cut-and-paste vision. The result? Culture drifts, hiring miscues multiply, and customers feel every wobble. A Deloitte survey of 22,000 Gen Z and millennial workers shows 70 % weigh a company’s values before accepting a job offer.(www2.deloitte.com) Ignore that and your competitor won’t.

Turn ideals into daily decisions

• Craft a one-sentence “North Star.”
  Template: We exist to ___ so that ___.
  A Monterrey food-delivery startup wrote, “We exist to shorten hunger gaps so families cook less and connect more.” Every sprint review now asks, “Did we shorten a gap?”

• Map the “We-Care Three.”

• Clear promises guide product tweaks and PR scripts alike.

• Bake values into metrics.

  • Speed with integrity: 95 % of orders under 30 min and zero food-safety complaints.

  • Growth with inclusion: 40 % of new hires from under-served ZIP codes.

When values pair with KPIs, trade-offs shrink.

• Tell micro-stories weekly.
  End Friday stand-ups with a 60-second shout-out of someone living the values—like Carla in Bogotá who rerouted deliveries to cut emissions 12 %. Stories anchor abstract words in real wins.

• Audit decisions every quarter.
  List the five biggest spends or pivots; tag each with the value it served. If tags repeat or feel forced, the vision needs refinement.

Avoid these traps

• Wallpaper words. Fancy posters without behavioral examples breed cynicism.

• Founder-only authorship. Draft values with at least three frontline voices.

• Set-and-forget. Markets shift; revisit vision annually.

Shared values align teams, attract talent, and—in study after study—boost the bottom line. Purpose-led firms outperform the stock market by 42 % over the long haul.(revboss.com)

So, what’s the one value your business will never trade—no matter the tempting shortcut? Post it, and challenge a fellow founder to do the same.