Home topics workplace hr-and-staff Managing Staff Managing Core values: The key ingredient of Zappos, Google and Southwest Airlines Tristan White May 1, 2012 What do Zappos, Google and Southwest Airlines have in common? Simple. A set of core values they’ve obsessed over, which have created a rock solid business culture. Zappos has one of the most famous cultures on the planet right now, as does Google and Southwest Airlines . Here in Australia, RedBalloon and E-web Marketing are among the leading workplace cultures, according to the Great Places to Work Institute. All of these businesses have something in common: a culture based upon a set of core values. Core values are the three to five behaviours that define a company culture. The way those values are lived everyday is what builds a strong culture. In fact, it doesn’t even matter what the values are, as long as you have core values and obsess over them, you will build a strong culture. Now, I know there are organisations with core values that don’t have a strong culture. The reason is that in these businesses, no one even knows what the values are. Often they’re crap values created and then left to decay in a boring company profile somewhere. What a waste! Core values should be included in everything, as that’s how these famous cultures are created. From selection, to recognition and reward, on your website, in your newsletter, in your training programs – almost everything ‘people’ related should include your values.