Last year, we conducted research for a high-tech client into the positioning and values of its competitors in Europe, America and Asia. It turned out that from a purely formal point of view, no two concepts were alike. From a purely technical point of view, it was impossible to explain when there was talk of corporate values, brand values or even mission statements.
The diversity became even greater when we looked at the semantic level. In other words, how are "values" defined linguistically and formally? The range extends from individual nouns such as "quality" or "safety" to adjectives such as "innovative" or "agile" and supposed promises such as "the customer is the focus".
This finding raises the question of why there are so few standards when it comes to assigning the value concept (corporate or brand values) and describing and defining values in practice?
Are decision-makers and consultants so poorly trained? Is there so little consensus in the scientific community? Or is the development in science and practice so dynamic that only different stages of development are reflected here?
What are your experiences?
Comments