Core values are the principles that decide for a company when nobody is watching. They are not the words on the wall: they are the criteria behind the client it turns down, the person it hires and the shortcut it refuses to take. This article gives you thirty examples organized by category, sorts out what mission, vision and values each do, and names the mistake I see in almost every company that comes to me: having too many values, which in practice means having none.
In fifteen years of brand and digital work, I have read dozens of value lists hanging in receptions. Almost all of them carried the same five to ten words, and almost none of them ever decided anything on a Monday morning. The list of examples below is here because it is what you came for. The rest of the article is here because it is what you need to know before you use any of those words.
What company core values are
Values are a company's principles of behavior: what it treats as non-negotiable in how it works, how it treats people and how it faces its market. They serve one purpose, deciding. When two options are both defensible, the value breaks the tie. If your company's list of values has never broken a tie, it is not a list of values: it is a list of qualities nobody would argue with, and a quality nobody argues with defines no one.
30 examples of core values, by category
To avoid picking in the dark, it helps to sort values by what they govern. Thirty real examples, in five categories:
| Category | Examples of values |
|---|---|
| How the company works | Excellence · Rigor · Simplicity · Agility · Craftsmanship · Consistency |
| How it treats people | Respect · Trust · Generosity · Hospitality · Loyalty · Care |
| How it faces the market | Boldness · Innovation · Independence · Ambition · Pioneering · Competitiveness |
| What it believes in | Transparency · Honesty · Fairness · Sustainability · Diversity · Freedom |
| What drives it inside | Passion · Curiosity · Courage · Joy · Belonging · Self-surpassing |
Now the warning none of these lists gives you: these thirty examples are raw material, not a menu. Picking five pretty words here and framing them on a wall is exactly the mistake this article is about. Before we get to it, a quick clarification on three terms everyone mixes up.
Mission, vision and values: who does what
| Concept | The question it answers | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Mission | What do we do, for whom? | "Make credit simple for small farmers" |
| Vision | Where do we want to get? | "Be the regional reference by 2030" |
| Values | How do we act on the way? | "Transparency: the client sees what the bank sees" |
Look closely at the values row: the word comes with an observable consequence. That is what separates a value from a decoration. "Transparency" on its own says nothing; "the client sees what the bank sees" changes the product, the contract and the hard conversation. If you want to see where all of this fits in the wider work of building a brand, start with what branding is.
The mistake: the value salad
Visit ten company websites and count the values. The average sits between five and eight, and the words repeat: integrity, innovation, excellence, respect, commitment. I call it the value salad, and it has a math problem before it has a brand problem: values only work when they break ties, and seven criteria break nothing. There will always be a value on the list to justify each side of the same decision. Boldness says take the project; excellence says turn it down. Innovation says switch tools; consistency says keep them. With the whole list available, the real decider is the taste of whoever talks loudest, and the wall becomes a stage set.
Once, in a meeting room, I counted ten values on a beautifully framed board. I asked the founder which of the ten he had used the last time he said no to a client. He looked at the board, laughed, and admitted he had never thought of them during an actual decision. The company was not dishonest: the list simply had no owner. Ten values on the wall, none at the table.
How to define company values, for real
The path that works does not start by choosing words: it starts by observing decisions. Three steps:
- Dig into decisions already made. The client you turned down when cash was tight. The hire nobody approved of and you insisted on. The cheap shortcut you did not take. Real values already live in there; the work is finding the word that explains those decisions all at once.
- Build a hierarchy: one central value, a few secondary ones, and the anti-values. One value rules, it is the essence of the brand (in my method it has a name: the Headvalue). Two or three secondary values support it. And the anti-values state what the brand never does, which is the forgotten half: banning "vagueness" decides as much as demanding "clarity".
- Write each value with its consequence. Not "transparency" but "transparency: prices are on the website". Not "care" but "care: nobody leaves the store without an answer". A value without an observable consequence is a candidate for the wall.
The hierarchy is what solves the tie-breaking problem: when two values point in opposite directions, the central one wins, and everyone knows it in advance. The discussion that used to fill a meeting now fits in a sentence.
The test for your current values
If your company already has defined values, three questions tell you whether they work:
- Which one decided your last hire? If none, they do not hire.
- Which one did you use the last time you said no to a client or a project? If none, they do not protect.
- Has any of them cost the company money in the last twelve months? A value that never cost anything has never been tested.
Three nos mean your list is decorative. The good news: the right answer already exists in the decisions your company has made, and finding it fits in one room with the people who decide.
Frequently asked questions
What are examples of company core values?
Excellence, simplicity, respect, trust, boldness, transparency, sustainability, courage and curiosity are common examples. The table in this article lists thirty, in five categories. What matters is not picking the prettiest words, but the ones that explain decisions the company has already made.
What are the 3 most important values at work?
There is no universal trio: the right value is the one the company practices when it is expensive. That said, trust, rigor and respect come up most often because they govern the three relationships of work: with the client, with the deliverable and with the team.
How many core values should a company have?
One central value that rules, two or three secondary ones that support it, and the anti-values that say what the company never does. Beyond that, the list stops deciding: with seven criteria available, every side of every decision finds a value to justify it.
How do you define a company's core values?
By observing decisions already made rather than choosing words from a list: what the company refused, who it insisted on hiring, the shortcut it did not take. Then build the hierarchy: one central value, a few secondary ones, the anti-values, each written with its observable consequence.
Camila Masetti is a brand strategist, creator of the Headvalue method and founder of three digital agencies in France. She built three hundred websites with her own hands and has trained two thousand professionals since 2015. More about Camila.