Growth Online > Knowledge Base > Business Growth > Utilize Values Business: Utilizing Business Values   Overview, Summary | Definition & Meaning | Power of Values | Values and Money, Prosperity Keys to Implementing Values | Values as Spiritual Skills | Miscellaneous | Specific Values Also See: Personal Values | Values in Society       Overview, Summary (top) Summary of Values in Company The greatest potentials for the growth of any company are generated by a commitment to high corporate values. By values, we mean the qualitative goals which the company strives to achieve in all its activities. Values release and direct energy, motivate people, generate profits and promote non-stop expansion. Values are the key to energizing the five growth engines of a company; market, products & services, organization, people, and finance. Values raise the quality of corporate energies and elevate work to a higher level. There are three types of values-physical, organization and psychological-which differ in the level and intensity of the energy they release. (MSS) Utility of Values in Business: Values release energy because they motivate people. Values motivate people to work together collectively. Values are like ever-receding or never-ending goals. The higher the values, the more the energy and effort required to achieve and sustain them. The more you pursue them, the greater the energy they release and put into action. Quality of performance on every job, every activity, and every act can be accurately assessed in terms of values. Companies which rated their implementation of key corporate values the highest also reported the highest levels of revenue growth and profitability in their respective industries. Improving corporate performance on a single value can virtually transform the way a company functions. Values are the most powerful way to release and harness the company's latent, unutilized energies for growth. (MSS) Redefining the Lost Ideal, Value After it Fades -When organisations fail, they move away from their original Ideals. -National and international movements generally start with an idea. It becomes the Ideal. As days pass, the practical dominates and the ideal goes to the background. To constantly renew the intellectual content of a movement is to renew its vigour. Had [the] Congress [part of India] defined what it meant by Prosperity [which it earlier espoused] and how it was going to achieve it, she would not have deteriorated within thirty or forty years after Independence. Any movement, national or international, will do well to fill its life with the needed intellectual content when it finds itself on a downward turn. That organisation will become dynamic if that content goes with a plan of action. Anyone who thinks of filling his life with both will see the SPIRIT moving towards him without his invoking it. (MSS, extracted) ARTICLE on the Importance of Business Values for a Company ARTICLE: A List of Important Business Values Personal Values for Individual Achievement ARTICLE on Personal Values Thoughts on Values in Society MSS Articles on Values The Secret of Values   Definition & Meaning of Values (top) Definition of Business Values Values are the operational qualities that companies seek to achieve or maintain in their performance. (MSS) Definition of Business Values By values, we mean the qualitative goals which the company strives to achieve in all its activities. (MSS) Definition of Values for a Company A value is a belief, a mission, or a philosophy that is really meaningful to the company. An example of a business value is: "Customer Satisfaction." Another example of a value is "Being Ethical and Truthful." Every company has one or more values, whether they are consciously aware of it or not. Another way of saying it is that a value is a statement of the company's intention and commitment to achieve a high level of performance on a specific QUALITATIVE factor. Values Reflect Highest Thought Personal values for an individual, business values for the company, and social values of the society are a reflection of the highest principal of mind and thought, and may even be part of the spiritual domain. Values release tremendous potential for success, accomplishment, and happiness. Pursuit of Ideal The highest levels of corporate intensity are achieved when a company accepts the greatest challenge of them all—the pursuit of an ideal, the striving toward a high value, the quest for excellence. (MSS) Values in Company The single most important force in the company for progress, accomplishment, success, and joy is its business values. Core Values In many recent business management books and journals, developing, adopting, and implementing values has been identified as perhaps the single key in the success of many high growth, high profit companies. A passion for a value and its implementation into the daily activities of work was identified by many as the single key to their business success. Values Since Tom Peter's book In Search of Excellence the interest in values, especially the value of freedom and concern for the employee has exploded in companies. It is the first stage away from the ordinary functioning of business. It enables a power in the company to grow beyond the usual approach. Values the Heart of the Corporate Personality At the heart of the corporate personality is a deeper psychic center, consisting of the company’s most cherished beliefs, values, and true mission, which give lifelong direction to the activities of the corporation. (MSS) The Psychic Center of the Company The "psychic center" of a company is its values and direction. The more developed these are, the greater the capacity to achieve. When the psychic is implemented by following the process of creation from conception to results, the company can achieve infinitely; the company becomes the leader in the world in its field. If it also opens  itself to the Force, it revolutionizes the world, such as through a never before seen product or service. The Soul of a Business is Its Values Think of business values as the soul of the company. Just as we can reach into our deepest parts and discover our soul and True Self within, enabling us to discover our deepest purpose in life, so too a company can discover its own soul center and purpose where its business values lie. Power of Values (top) Power of Values The deepest poise for an individual, business, or society are its values. When values are implemented or are newly developed, then outer circumstances can change ten times faster (and better) than merely trying to change things on the surface. (MSS) Benefit of Values We consider lower costs, more access to money, better products, more technology, etc. the key to advancement, profitability, and success in business. Though these should not be underestimated, business values -- like customer delight, deep concern for the well being of employees, maximum utilization of resources, innovation, tapping into the emerging opportunities of society, etc. -- have 10 to 100 times as much power to produce such results.   Values in Work Values are lifelines. They have great power. In business one value everyone appreciates is the quality of the product. Every businessman as well as every customer knows fully well the value of quality. If you look at any company and find it is making steady progress, certainly it will be adhering to values. If two companies in the same industry are making small and great progress, surely the latter company will be following higher values. Even one great value fully followed can give extraordinary results. Some of the values that are meaningful to business are: safety, security of job, family feeling, constant progress, reliability, honesty, efficient after-sales service, maximum use-value of product, courtesy, friendliness, ideals in work, trustworthiness, quality product and loyalty. (MSS) Power of Business Values -Values release and direct energy, motivate people, generate profits and promote non-stop expansion. -Values elevate our work from the level of mere physical activity to the level of organized efficiency, emotional involvement and mental creativity. (MSS) Values Raise Work to Spiritual Plane Values which are skills of the Spirit expressed in physical work raise the work from the physical plane to the spiritual plane.  (MSS) Values Perfect Work Work that expresses values becomes perfect work. (MSS) Power of Values Energy in each plane [physical, vital, mental, spiritual] matures into skill of work in a single act and yields its full result to the individual when values and discipline are called into play. (MSS) Business Values and Energy Values are the most powerful way to release and harness the company's latent, unutilized energies for growth. Values upgrade the quantity and quality of energy available by harnessing organizational energies-the power of authority, freedom, systems, coordination and communication-and psychological energies-our interest, excitement, enthusiasm, pride, emotions, innovation and inspiration. (MSS) Power of Values in Action Values multiply the power of action and its results. Values express in physical acts, in attitudes and in thoughts. Each has its own power. We all know that a skilled act generates greater results than an unskilled one. The skilled worker—carpenter, painter, accountant, salesman, lawyer, physician—produces a more useful, beneficial or beautiful result in a shorter period of time with less waste. What is not often recognized is that skilled work expressing values produces far greater results.   The master chef may find his finest dish rejected when he fails to serve it on a clean platter. The skilled driver who lacks the value of punctuality may cause his employer to miss a crucial meeting or a great opportunity. The clever accountant who lacks the value of orderliness can misplace an important document or even a customer’s payment, as an accountant in a public sector transport company once misplaced a draft for a crore of rupees. The brilliant arguments of a skilled advocate may fail to persuade when the judge that knows he lacks the value of truthfulness. The dynamic, visionary businessman who lacks the value of taking the other person’s point of view may fail to win the favour of a big customer or the support of his own people at a crucial moment. Values exist in an ascending series of planes, each higher plane being more powerful than the one before it. Physical values express in how carefully and reliably we handle material things. Vital values express in how pleasantly, harmoniously, generously we relate with other people. Mental values express in honesty, truthfulness, trustworthiness and idealism. Spiritual values express our faith, sincerity, patience, perseverance, goodwill and self-giving. Every act is a universe which can express many values. The more it expresses, the greater its power and effectiveness. (MSS) Personal Values and the Argument for Life Response At Growth Online, we address many subjects related to personal, spiritual, business, and society’s growth and evolution. We even address the ultimate transformation of humanity through the power of the spirit. Interestingly, however, the most popular articles at the site have been on the topic of “personal values.” We know that in the last 25 years, values have been a recognizable and much appreciated subject that has moved to the forefront of life – whether in the classroom or the boardroom. And so it was then quite surprising that one of our readers informed us that though he appreciates our articles on personal values, he questions our advocacy of the phenomenon of “Life Response” at the site. After all, the reader posits, personal values are something that has intellectual weight and is worthy of serious consideration, whereas life response is something ethereal and unproven. Implicit in the remark is that we should not mention life response in the same breath as personal values. 100 years ago, virtually no one in the commercial sector had heard of, or even seriously considered the notion of utilizing values in the workplace. To succeed in business, one needed grit, steel, strength, capacity, and plenty of resources. Likewise, workers needed to be hearty, dutiful, and capable of doing the job. Other factors, such as an employee’s honesty, the company’s integrity, the worker’s personal safety, etc. were absent from the dialogues of commerce. Rather, work was organized around goals to be achieved within a time period at a certain cost so that the customer got what he wanted. Adhering to values was considered too subjective -- even effeminate -- to be worthy of management’s attention. And yet, today we are beginning to see that values are well on the way to revolutionizing many areas of society. Of late, it seems to be on the lips of everyone; from every sphere and field of life. Fortunately, in the last 100 years we have seen a gradual movement away from an empirical-oriented commerce to a more values-oriented approach. What was subjective then -- i.e. values -- has become the objective and concrete now. What was beyond mind’s conception then has now been accepted as a rational and effective method for uplifting all aspects of life. For example, leaders of corporations now engage in strategic planning in which the values of the company -- such as integrity, customer delights, maximum utilization of resources, etc. -- are integrated into its mission statement. No longer are values for the intellectuals or college professors or elites. Values are now lauded as being of great utility throughout society, whether in business, government, education -- even amongst youth. In fact, a good one-half of the readers of our articles on personal, business, and society’s values at Growth Online are college students and teenagers! What was once subjective and “not supported by an intellectual foundation” has now percolated up through society, and has begun to be accepted as part of the new objective reality. The concept of “Life Response” is undergoing the same process of acceptance. It is admired by a few, not heard of or understood by nearly everyone, and disparaged by several. It is in one sense the new subjective, the new functioning of life that appears to not have that necessary intellectual weight -- a questionable process of life, without logical, rational, or scientific underpinnings. The truth is that the life response phenomenon is simply a more subtle functioning of life than personal values, and therefore escapes the modern intellectual mind. It is more difficult for the average person to fathom because it requires us to go a level deeper in consciousness to perceive its startling workings. Just as we have moved from the empirical to the subtle to perceive the great utility of values, we need to go deeper still to see the overwhelming power of the life response phenomenon. Life response is, in case you didn’t know, is the condition where life instantaneously changes with sudden good fortune due to a change in a habit, emotion, or attitude on our part. It is a miraculous-like phenomenon that can shape the way we look at life in 21st century -- even as we began to appreciate values at the end of the 20th. If you consider for a moment the great benefits that values bring us, then you’ll appreciate the even greater power of life response. Values, for one, energizes every act engaged in -- increases its effectivity and efficiency perhaps on an order of ten times. If, for example, I speak with the customer with great respect and a caring attitude, then not only will I more likely get the order, but my firm will develop a positive reputation that will cause many to flock to us, catapulting our firm to the top of its field. How does one measure success in such situations? Is it a factor of 2 or 5 or 10 times? We do not really know the full affect of implementing values in our lives because the results generated have not been well understood, documented, and measured -- save for certain pioneer studies such as Jacobs’ and Macfarlane’s ‘The Vital Corporation,’ a profound book that explores the power of values in the business environment. Though great, we should keep in mind that values bring about unprecedented success over time. E.g. applying the value of ‘quality of service’ has catapulted many companies to the top of their fields in the years and decades that followed. Other corporate values like “commitment to the well being of its people” or “focusing on the emerging needs of society” have done the same; rocketing companies to the pinnacles of success. Life Response, on the other hand, can literally change the conditions of life in a single moment -- overcoming limits of space and time, and what we believe is possible. It is miraculous-like phenomenon that overwhelms all previous notions of how life works. E.g., imagine that you change an emotion, and then suddenly two minutes later you receive the biggest order in your company’s history, seemingly out of nowhere!  It is no wonder that the modern intellectual mind is skeptical. Worse still, in rejecting it outright, the modern Mind never bothers to determine if it is a real phenomenon of life to begin with! In other words, it abandons its own empirical scientific methods in ascertaining if the phenomenon exists! Fortunately, Mind -- which was not highly developed in man until recent times -- has begun to shed its past folly and moved towards logic and reason. More recently still, it has begun to see that we cannot just measure cold fact and say that is the entire truth of things; that when considering any object of inquiry, we must also accept other influences in the human equation, including the effect of our attitudes, emotions, beliefs, and other factors. Mind is thus becoming more subtle in its outlook and understanding, and thus more capable of perceiving the variety of possibilities that life presents us. One result has been Man’s recognition of the value of values -- that they are not subjective, as once believed, but do objectively influence our lives; often with great power. Mind is capable of going deeper still. It can be centered in a deeper poise in the depths of consciousness within. From there, mind can perceive new truths and unfoldings beyond the mere material facts. From an inner poise of calm and mental silence, Man opens to new forms of perception -- including the utilization of insight, illumination, vision, intuition, and revelation. Anchored within, one can look out into the world and perceive the subtle workings and unfoldings of life. In particular, from that “witness consciousness” we begin to perceive the phenomenon of life response in action. Experiencing its power on a regular basis, it becomes to us as objective as any empirical or scientific fact. When we look back 100 years from now, we will see how limited our current view of objectivity is. We will see that it is objective to include the power of values in any analysis of success. And we will see that it is objective to include the workings of the life response phenomenon when evaluating the flow and processes of life. Mostly, values and life response will be objective to us because we will be able to summon up its power at will. It will be the very stuff of our daily lives. Except this life will exceed the old way by a factor of a hundred or even a thousand, as we are able to bring the infinite potentials of life instantaneously into the here and now. Values as Spiritual Skills (top)   Values Values, which are really spiritual skills, can raise the results of work a hundred-fold or more. (MSS) Values as Skill of Higher Mind Values can be described as the skill of higher mind (spirit). (MSS) Untitled "The Universe comes to us as values" --Sri Aurobindo Values from Divine Source All values ultimately are manifestations of the Divine and derive from a common source. (MSS) Values as Spiritual Skills Though Spirit in its original splendour is a high goal, its values of honesty, loyalty, truthfulness, cleanliness, and silence are what we can now know and follow. By adhering to these values seriously, one can bring the power of Spirit to bear upon life. Values, which are really spiritual skills, can raise the results of work a hundred-fold or more. (MSS) Untitled The attitude that helps us acquire VALUES is the attitude that there lies a SPIRIT behind everything. (MSS) Article on How Values are Spiritual Skills http://www.motherservice.org/Essays/TheSecretofValues.html Widening Our Universe, Our Values Sri Aurobindo says that the universe comes to us as values. Whatever values we seek is our universe. In this way, our conception of the universe can be widened. Our experience of our universe too can constantly increase. (MSS, slightly modified) Values Values are higher consciousness that enables a movement to the next higher plane. Powers of Spirit Known in Mind through Values The body is unconscious. It has no sense of values. The vital has emotions, feelings, attitudes, and skills of living. If the vital endorses a value one day, it can oppose it the next because it is unstable. The middle mind is the seat of values and sentiments. However, even the mind does not have to have any values it believes in. In spirit values truly take shape. In spirit one can come to know spiritual powers that can be adopted as values of Oneness, Truth, Knowledge, Power, Delight, Love, Beauty, Infinity, etc. Values in mind are spiritual skills that incorporate spirit's powers through mind's thought felt through the vital's emotions. Values and Powers of Spirit We can devise a list of spiritual powers, including Harmony, Unity, Oneness, Perfection, Gratitude, Self-Givingness, (spiritual) Peace, Equality, (divine) Beauty, (divine) Love, Truth, Integral Knowledge, and others. We know of practical values in life like honesty, self-reliance, openness, tolerance, organization, maximum utilization, attention, continuous improvement, simplicity, respect for the individual, etc. We can associate each human value to their appropriate spiritual power. Spirituality Translated as Values Spirituality can be translated as values of the work place: exhausting our potential, paying the greatest attention, using the available technologies to exhaustion, avoiding and eliminating unavoidable waste by appropriate systems, saving every minute of Time that could be saved, etc. (MSS)   Values and Money, Prosperity (top) Values and Prosperity How can someone working in an office or factory become vastly prosperous? No one will deny now that education is the foundation of today’s prosperity. Money that issues out of physical labour is better earned when education, a mental tool, is added to it. I advocate the next higher TOOL. It is seated in the Spirit as skills. Values are spiritual skills. Whatever your vocation, when you add values to it, you will see Prosperity in abundance is the result. Honesty, integrity, truthfulness, fairness, and justice are higher values. Punctuality, politeness, pleasantness, record keeping, orderliness, soft speech, cleanliness, accuracy, precision, workmanship, and thoroughness are physical values. Perfection is the wider term that covers both. Be where you are. Do what you are doing. Add values to your work. Go on adding them in quantity and quality. You will reach the heaven of Prosperity. (MSS) Power of Values to Earn Money Earning money is an act, like any other act of winning the elections, passing an exam, etc. The components of an act are energy that comes from interest, goal that gives the direction, organisation from which power issues, and skills that convert that power into results. Each component goes to decide the quantum of money earned, but the earning itself depends on the harmonious functioning of all these components. None of these components can be missed or supplied in half-measure. When all the components are adequately present and harmoniously functioning, the result, the amount of money earned, is decided by the values of each component. This is so because values are spiritual. One who is earning Rs.10,000 or 1,00,000 a month can raise that income five fold, if he introduces values at every stage and gently raises them to their maximum. By this approach a company that is marginally losing will at once become marginally profitable. The profits can be raised further by raising the values or organising better or employing any other method the company needs. There is no work where values do not arise. Attention, organisation, comprehension, integrity, truthfulness, etc. are just a few of the values we know. The list can be endless. A family presided over by a person whose priority is his own wants practices selfish values. If he decides to meet the needs of all others before meeting his own needs, he practises selfless values. Or, he may decide to practise Self-giving, which means going all out to meet everyone’s needs which lie within the ambit of his duty or not. Soon he will witness a burst of income. Owners of companies taking such an approach will discover the ORDERS for which they have been searching all over, like a needle in a haystack, will start coming on their own. Values are spiritual. They can earn a vast quantity of good money. (MSS, slightly modified)   Keys to Implementing Values (top) Implementing, Institutionalizing Values Values are only as good as they are implemented into the company AT ALL LEVELS. Just to describe a value in a mission statement or values statement is useless unless it is pushed down into and implemented at all levels of the company. A value is thus institutionalized when it saturates all aspects of the business; when it permeates all aspects of the company, eventually without encouragement or enforcement; and when it systematically operates on its own through all activities and job positions. When this is done, the value has an enormous potential to energize the company, which leads to dramatically increased revenues and profits for the firm. Anything less than the full saturation of values at all appropriate levels of the company will not enable the value to bring the desired positive results. To fully implement and thus institutionalize a value in a company the following steps need to all occur: SELECTION -- Choose the values that you are interesting in fully implementing in the company. COMMITMENT -- There needs to be a full commitment to implement the chosen values. Senior and middle management, and other employees need to fully commit to those values; commit to improving performance on those values. STANDARDS -- A set of standards for each activity in the company needs to be implemented for each value. STRUCTURE -- The company needs to have the right structure (of job positions, divisions, departments, etc.) to implement the values. JOBS, ACTIVITIES & SYSTEMS -- The company must have clearly defined job positions, activities, and streamlined systems to facilitate to implement the values. Values need to be incorporated into every job position, activity, every system. Standard operating procedures and even individual job position tasks need to be linked to these values. EMPLOYEE RESPONSIBILITY -- The responsibility of each person to implement each value must be clearly defined and understood (e.g. in their job orientation, in their job descriptions, from their manager, etc.). SKILLS -- Everyone must have the skills to achieve high performance on the values. Everyone must have the skills they need to fulfill their responsibilities for the value. If necessary, additionall training should be implemented to upgrade the skills for value implementation. For a full explanation of how to go through each of these steps to fully implement, i.e. institutionalize one or more values, click here. Implementing Values The real power of values come from implementing them in every corporate activity. The implementation of values can be institutionalized in a company by a five step process: making a real commitment to the values, setting clear quantifiable standards, assigning responsibility for achieving the values, creating the right systems for achieving and monitoring performance on them, and training for all the necessary skills and attitudes.  Accessing Quality of Performance in Terms of Business Values The quality of performance on every job, every activity, and every act can be accurately assessed in terms of values. (MSS) Levels of Value Implementation There are actually three levels of success that we can measure value implementation. The first is the acceptance of the values amongst management with the push of upper management. The second is the acceptance of the values amongst management even without the pressure of top management. The third is when each manager believes in the values of the company and accepts it as their very own. While the first stage can happen fairly rapidly, the second and third stages take a long time to develop, and indicate a mature company that can grow at very accelerated levels. Endless Power of Business Values Values can never be fully and finally achieved. The achievement of better quality and improved teamwork today is no assurance that they will still be better tomorrow, any more than cleaning a room today ensures that it will remain clean tomorrow. Values are like ever-receding or never-ending goals. The higher the values, the more the energy and effort required to achieve and sustain them. The more you pursue them, the greater the energy they release and put into action. (MSS) Never Ending Potential of Business Values Values like honesty, safety, service are also goals are permanent goals that can never be fully attained or maintained but serve as a standard of perfection to strive for at every moment in every activity. For this reason they appear more vague than specific objectives but are actually far more powerful. The constant effort of an organization to realize high values in action is a powerful lever for releasing latent energies and converting them into intensity. (MSS) Perfect Values Perfect values are recognized only when they are perfect, not while they are partial. What makes a value perfect is its highest reach is unblemished. An absence of compromise all along makes for perfection. Unless values are perfect they come to nothing (with a few exceptions). (MSS) Perfection in Values that Invokes Great Response from Life Perfection in values elevates work to a higher level, from the physical to the mental level or from the mental level to the spiritual level and invokes the higher power to express in our work. Perfection of a single value evokes powerful responses from life. E.g. perfect cleanliness attracts money from endless sources. Perfect accuracy and quality can lead to exponential expansion, Harmony attracts high opportunities 100 times greater in magnitude than the present operations. When the lowest level worker fully understands, appreciates, takes interest and feels pride in achieving perfection in the smallest, least significant, routine action, only then it can be said the company has full embraced and implemented a values. At that point life will respond abundantly. For the response to be great not just once, but ongoing, the perfection of the value must be a habit in the culture of the company (MSS, extracted, somewhat paraphrased)  Gradations of Bringing Out Its Ultimate Power when Implementing a Value The higher the level of consciousness of the worker involved in implementing a value, the greater the results. Here is a scale from minimal to greatest power of consciousness of a worker to bring great results through implementation of a value: Hard work in strict obedience to instructions. (minimum power) Greater employee awareness and interest in the work Elevating the level of the physical skills Overflowing enthusiasm to raise the quality of the work. Emotional commitment and determination to achieve perfection. Clear mental plans for achieving perfect execution of values in the work A sentimental attitude among those who work that accepts achievement of the values as personally important to them. A clear mental conception regarding the power of values and the process by which they can release the Infinite powers of life in the finite. (MSS) Ways to Evaluate Values Values can be evaluated in terms of energy, force, power, skills, results, enjoyment, accomplishment, progress, Time, Space, matter, life, mind, spirit, the twelve aspects of the Spirit and every known aspect of life. (MSS)   Miscellaneous (top) Values in a Strategic Plan In developing a strategic plan for the future direction of the company, one considers the vision of where one wishes the company to go, and in particular expresses them as qualitative and quantitative objectives. The qualitative objectives are in essence the company's existing or future values that it wishes to implement in its plan. Business Values & Employee Motivation -Values motivate people to improve individual performance on their own jobs. -Values release energy because they motivate people. (MSS) Specific Business Values: (top) Value of Commitment to People/Respect for the Individual (Click here to see entries) Value Customer Delight (Click here to see entries) Valuing Maximum Utilization of Resources Value of Maximum Utilization of Resources Maximum Utilization of Resources is the desire and ability of the company to improve its performance by full utilization of its current resources.   Maximum Utilization of a Resource Let’s face it, we live in a throwaway society. We use something, and when that resource is depleted, we discard it for a hopefully available replacement. In these situations, we are normally more concerned with the results that come from using the resource, than any interest in extracting the maximum use out of it. However, if we were to become more conscious, and make full use of that resource, not only will we increase efficiency, productivity, and save money, but we are likely to attract sudden and abundant good fortune in the form of more money, more sales, greater opportunities - even more of that resource! One company that was about to run out of an essential raw materials required for the manufacturing of welding electrodes discovered that their only supplier was shutting down. In response to this challenge, the manager decided that not a single particle of the resource should be wasted. To that end, even the shop floor was swept clean in order to garner even the smallest traces of the resource. Remarkably, two days later, the managing director of a company that supplied that resource suddenly arrived - from a thousand miles away - to visit the unit. On recognizing the manager’s problem, he had his own supplier immediately dispatch the needed material directly to the desperate company! In another situation, a consultant advised the proprietor of a company to clean a machine, despite the fact that it was not being used for any purpose. Though he questioned the utility (and sanity!) of this advice, the proprietor took up the consultant’s suggestion. A day or two later, the proprietor’s cousin arrived on the scene, and was attracted to the newly cleaned machine. He asked the proprietor if he could have it for a new enterprise he was contemplating. In the months that followed, the machine turned into a veritable cash cow, producing substantial income for both the cousin and the proprietor! The moral of the story is the same as the previous one -- when you maximize the use of a resource, you attract sudden good fortune. Maximizing the use of a given resource is to value the object in of itself - i.e. to perceive its own unique individuality and being. When you make the most out of a resource - whether it is an object, material, time, energy, or capacity - life can respond suddenly and abundantly to your efforts. Maximum Use and Life Response When you utilize your current resources to their maximum, life has a way of suddenly responding with good fortune. Maximum Use of Resources One way we to give attention to things is by adopting the personal value of maximizing the way you use your current resources, such as money, materials, and time. Here's an example of how one manufacturer applied the value of maximum utilization of a limited resource, which resulted in a very favorable situation for the company: "In the manufacture of welding electrodes, Low Carbon Ferro Manganese is one of the main raw materials. The manufacturer who was supplying us suddenly informed that their plant is shut down for maintenance and that there will not be any supply from them for the next two months. It is an expensive material so the stock holding was minimum. There are only very few manufacturers of this item and they are all located at far away places. We had little time to arrange supply from other sources. The stock on hand was sufficient for 5 days of production only. We decided that not a particle of LCF should be wasted and alerted all the workers to be extra careful. The shop floor was swept thoroughly and all the spilled material were collected, screened and used. Within two days, Managing Director of a company manufacturing LCF in Orissa (which is about 1300 kilometers away from Pondicherry) visited our unit, over the phone (from Pondicherry) he instructed his plant to dispatch material to us. From the previous supplier we were buying the material against payment. Where as this company offered us a credit of 30 days. We did not negotiate any terms with them. They themselves agreed to supply at the same price. We were frank in telling them the precarious situation we were in. In spite of knowing our weak situation, they did not take any undue advantage. We are continuing with them." Superstition of Waste Experts in management know that avoiding avoidable waste changes a losing company into a profit-making one. Waste becomes a source of prestige and status, especially with the newly rich. To them the capacity to waste is a sign of assured abundance. It is a superstition. (MSS) Strategies for Eliminating Waste We carefully control expenditures to minimize costs and eliminate waste of any description. All our people consciously strive to minimize costs and eliminate waste of all descriptions. The activities of the company are highly organized and systematized, with little waste in time, effort, money, and materials. Gas in Cars Wastage Not having vehicles that use petroleum get the maximal miles per gallon is to avoid maximum utilization of that resource. Can we likewise list ways we can maximize the use of a resource? Maximal Use of Money Money -- like energy, money, water, and electricity -- is a resource. Maximizing its use can invoke overwhelmingly powerful responses from life, including the return of lots more money and other closely related benefits. How can we then maximize our use of money? Here are several strategies.   Valuing the Emerging Needs of Society (Click here to see entries)   Values of Honesty, Integrity, Truthfulness, Sincerity (Click here to see entries)   Valuing Organization (Click here to see entries) Punctuality (Click here to see entries)   Reliability (Click here to see entries)   Harmony (and Teamwork) (Click here to see entries)   Common Sense On Common Sense Common Sense is COMMON to more than one factor, or to all factors, which means the primary coordination within one factor is extended to all factors that are outside. 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