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Growth Online		 Business: Utilizing Business Values
 		Knowledge Base
by Roy Posner and MSS

 

 

Overview, Summary
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Values and Goals Statement

Businesses and other organizations develop strategic plans in which they list out their goals and values. E.g., one company indicated, "Provide growth opportunities for our employees. Create economic value for our customers and shareholders. Return value to the communities we serve."

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
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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
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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)

Discovering & Applying Values that Attract the Market  

Is it possible to attract the market through our beliefs, rather than engaging in outer physical advertising or other outer initiatives?

Years of experience of a “consciousness-based” approach to business has shown that to the extent that the leader’s own values are made real through his personality, the business will thrive. I.e. the market will respond out of all proportion. For example, if we intensely believe in and aspire for the values of “making things easier for the user,” that will have far greater impact than merely advertising our product in the open market. What happens is that through this high-consciousness mental belief, we unleash powerful energies that align with the needs of individuals, which will result in their purchasing the product in spades. We will have evoked a response through inner means; only modestly taking to outer, physical action.

Thus, if we want to “advertise ourselves” and attract the market, we can withdraw focus on outer initiative, even advertising initiative, and instead get in touch with and intensely aspire for our personal or business values, which will bring out the Spirit in our endeavor, touching the essence and psychic center of the community/market, attracting them to purchase our service or product. This side-stepping of outer initiative for a values-based inner one is a great spiritual secret of business success, or for that matter, any type of personal or collective achievement.

Thus, the first great challenge for us is understand what our own or our organization’s deepest values and beliefs are. An even greater challenge is to discover what unique values are that set us apart from the herd. The third challenge is to identify what is changing in society so that we can catch that wave. If somehow our own unique values match an emerging tide of social progress, then we will be creating a perfect storm for overwhelming success.

Once we identify the inner values and the outer emerging need, we can develop strategies to implement them. From amongst these, we can choose the best, and then through persevering effort and right attitudes, we can implement them. Life will cooperate at every quarter. Moreover, results will depend less on our outer advertising than the intensity and application of our unique values at all levels of the endeavor. This “Inner Advertising” will not only engender great success, but create entirely new markets, leading the society forward.

By restraining outer effort for inner intensity of belief, we tap the universal plane that is behind the aspirations of the collective.

 

On Trying to Duplicate the Success of Silicon Valley in Other Regions
 Silicon Valley (and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area) came together as THE tech capital because of the confluence of special circumstance not easy to duplicate.

1. The defense and aerospace industry, including NASA.

2. Two world class universities -- Stanford and Berkeley

3. The rush of Hippies and future Boomers from around the world wanting to make a difference.

4. Lovely weather.

5. A scenic location.

6. An environment of willingness to take chances; to change the world. (Those types of people come to a seismically active region; fearless)

7. A vibe in the area of constant change. (It was not only the center of the Hippie and New Age revolution, but the place that the environmental movement began, as well as the Biotech revolution began. Most importantly, the PC was born here, then the Internet technology, (and now the Smart Smartphone). You see why it is hard to duplicate the environment

If a city wants to become another SV, then you have to change your VALUES to something higher. Values like tolerance, innovation, free thinking, non-money orientation (that ironically brings tons of it), and creativity. They have taken up that mantle somewhat in Bangalore, India because they know fully what was involved, what values were needed. As Indians started almost one third of all Silicon Valley companies while they were here. They were pioneers for coming here, and now they take it home with them, deservedly so.

Few people are pioneers. We mostly follow the herd. Innovative, original thinkers and doers are rare. In the San Francisco Bay Area, not matter how much fun is poked at people here, is saturated with such people. They really want to make a difference in the world.

 

Silicon Valley Values Attract Overwhelmingly

I was driving through nearby Silicon Valley, and noticed once again that on weekends it is like a ghost town. And yet even on weekdays, when there are nearly a million workers busily creating the technological future, there is still a general quietude in the area. Where there was once the quiet of miles of fruit trees in a lovely, fertile valley, now there is the concentrated quietude of humans busily absorbed in their pioneering work.

There is also a modesty about the surroundings, including the architecture in the Valley. Buildings are low slung and attract no attention, and hardly noticeable from the surrounding highways. In fact, the whole of Silicon Valley is hardly visible. Where is it? people often ask when they drive by. It is hidden away in quiet, tree-lined campuses.

In addition, one notices that the general tone in the Valley is quite self-effacing. For example, Intel is so modest ca company that they barely have a sign indicating their world headquarters. From the highway, one needs to stain to see their little electric moniker that is almost completely blocked from view. And yet they are rolling in cash. Combining modesty and super quantum technology can have that effect.

Then there is Cisco who have a huge home campus, the biggest in the Valley, with 50+ large, new buildings, of which I have worked at several. There is a similar intense quietude in that company as well. In the hallways you rarely hear loud voices. Its facilities are impeccably clean and orderly, yet the firm allows for considerable individual freedom and initiative. And like a number of vastly successful SV companies, they don't quite know what to do with their horde of cash; $30B, without hardly any debt. It must be the product of their subtle work ethics and values.

Also, in Silicon Valley there are virtually no billboards near the campuses. In fact, throughout the San Francisco Bay Area such giant outdoor ads are scorned. Likewise, crass, material values are generally frowned upon throughout the region. Instead values of innovation, experimentation, and individuality are advocated and also realized in many firms and organizations in the area. It is probably the key to their enormous success.

On this particular weekend afternoon, I went off the beaten path a bit and drove up to Apple, who are somewhat secluded from the rest of the Valley. Their corporate headquarters campus is very modest for a $50 Billion company. But what of their internal values? As MSS’s Garry Jacobs has pointed out, they practice a kind of Silent Will by not revealing their products until the last minute, which in turn attract seekers of their wares like crazy. A frenzy-like anticipation builds up in response to that “willful silence.”

It is not just the consumers who take to this corporate Pied Piper, for the press is also attracted to their secrecy like flies, wondering what Apple will produce next. When new products arrive, there are lines of buyers in 250 cities worldwide, some up to a quarter mile long. It is marketing by Stealth and Silence.

In general, there is little ostentation in Silicon Valley. The founders of many of the companies were modest people; usually scientific types. Gaudiness and ostentation has always been frowned on; i.e. SILENTLY frowned upon, even as the culture encourages innovation and individuality. Also, their success and values attract the most talented people from around the world in a never-ending stream. Many are attracted to the opportunity to express their individuality and to make a mark in the world. Great financial reward, though aspired for is more often than not a secondary consideration, though that is precisely what they attract.

As I passed by Apple, I became acutely aware that there is a tremendous Efficiency in the company. Time and space are kept to absolute minimums. We see that Apple makes very few products and yet succeeds with them enormously. There is great precision in the products, as so much is condensed into small packages. This is the efficiency of Space.

In addition, their deadlines and release dates are also so precise. Everything is synchronized down to the smallest detail at the precise minute; from projects they are working on to their marketing campaigns to their worldwide broadcast presentations around the world. This is their efficiency of Time.

In sum, Space and Time are dramatically reduced, as tiny products with startling precision and intelligence are produced within perfectly calculated timeframes. It shows the great power of Mind that can move to timelessness and spacelessness, mimicking the Divine Source of all things.

This was the single great personal revelation I had on that weekend drive. 

 

Individuality and Collaboration
 Perhaps the most interesting rivalry in the business world over the last generation has been the competitive battle between Apple and Microsoft. The twists and turns that these two companies have gone through are legend -- as have been the experiences and action of their leaders, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. One interesting way to look at their success is to examine some essence, quality, and core value that was critical to their accomplishment.

On the Apple side, it has been the ability to express people’s individuality through breakthrough technology. From the very beginning, Apple has seen itself as a company doing battle with the establishment, embodied in the perceived IBM-centric world of hierarchy and conformity. With breakthrough, easy to use, people-oriented products, Apple has aimed to break down these barriers, allowing the individual to express his capacities in full. This ability to bring out human individuality is one of the hallmarks of Apple’s values, drive, and success. The result has been products that have revolutionized the computer world, and indeed the world at large.

In the years I have observed Microsoft’s success, an almost opposite quality, essence, and value stands out. It is an extraordinary ability to collaborate with its partners and users. Microsoft at every stage has sought to open itself to creating relationships with hardware vendors, corporations, and users in order to extend its technology into the wider sphere. When Microsoft developed its original DOS personal computer operating system, it encouraged dozens of PC manufacturer to use it. That more open-ended model continued with the release of Windows and then Windows Mobile. Likewise, any developer who has worked with the company knows how they have bent over backwards to forge relationships with partners, while expanding Microsoft’s market. The result has been a 90% market share in PC operating systems, creating a company that is a virtual money making machine.

These same two factors -- individuality and collaboration -- are central dynamics of life itself. On the one hand, there is the need to express one’s self and individuality in life, even as there is the necessity to cooperate with others. This is a central dynamic that is perpetually working itself out in society. For example, in America, individuality is there everywhere, almost in the extreme; and yet its collaborative capacities – i.e. its ability to work for the common good, and to cooperate with a collective of nations -- is often sorely lacking. If the US embraced collaboration as much as individuality, it would almost certainly maintain its role of evolutionary leader of the world. In Asia, we see more of the other side, where collaboration is at the forefront, and true individuality is too often missing. That too is working itself out.

Of course, each alone -- individuality or collaboration -- is limited; but a part, not the whole of what is necessary for human progress. However, working in tandem, these two dynamics are fully capable of harnessing the best of society, and releasing the infinite potentials of life.

 

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"ť 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"ť 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
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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
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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
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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:

  1. SELECTION -- Choose the values that you are interesting in fully implementing in the company.

  2. 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.

  3. STANDARDS -- A set of standards for each activity in the company needs to be implemented for each value.

  4. STRUCTURE -- The company needs to have the right structure (of job positions, divisions, departments, etc.) to implement the values.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.).

  7. 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)

 

 

 

Values and Society's Needs
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Companies and Society

Perhaps the one question that every member of a company should ask is "what does society want and how can we help?"

 

Emulating Silicon Valley

Regarding other cities attempt to try to emulate the overwhelming success of Silicon Valley:

Silicon Valley culture was forged in the 70s and 80s as an outgrowth of the Hippy and New Age culture that flourished in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is those values that created the spirit of daring, entrepreneurship, individuality, change the world, new world view and vision, etc. This was a Power hard to replicate. It is still there even as no one is really conscious of those powerful roots.

If another area wants to have that power, it needs to develop newer values appropriate for the newer changes in society. Do we know what those are? That is where the discussion should be focused. This is the core out of which radiates infinite possibilities and success.

We see this starting to happen in India, of all places, as they have learned many of our lessons in Silicon Valley having practiced here, and are transplanting them there. Come to think of it, the Bay Area New Age movement and values (cultural, economic, technological spiritual, etc.) secretly has its roots in India in the first place!

 

Miscellaneous
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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:
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Commitment to People/Respect for the Individual
 (Click here to see entries)


Customer Delight

(Click here to see entries)

 

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.

Life Responds Powerfully to Making Full Use of a Limited Resource

When you make a full, persevering effort with what little you have, life tends to take over and provide you with what is missing; often much more. E.g., one man's vacuum cleaner was no longer picking up dirt due to faulty suction in the main part. Rather than fretting, he used an awkward to operate side vent and tube to extract the filth. Though it was a very slow operation, he held back from complaining. A few moments later, a friend unexpectedly handed him a long-forgotten attachment to the machine. When he then connected the part, it picked up dirt far faster than the original method! He was overjoyed at the turn of events in this relatively small domestic situation.

The principle illustrated here is that when you make full use of a limited resource (and don't complain), life takes over and gives you what you hoped for, and much more.

Here is a more dramatic example: A manager and his people no longer had access to a critical resource for manufacturing their main products. For several days, the company's lifeblood and very existence was in danger. As a result, the manager asked his people to pick up every last morsel of that resource from the shop floor. Suddenly from out of nowhere they received word that a new supplier had come forward with abundant supplies of that scarce resource, relieving the company of its hardship.

It was another demonstration of how life tends to respond with good or great fortune to calmly and consciously utilizing whatever resource is at one's disposal. Maximizing a resource -- whether money, materials, or people -- is the surest way of attracting more of it, or other forms of abundance.

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."

Maximum Use of an Ingredient Attracts Success
In the late 1970s British TV series The Duchess of Duke Street, Louise Leyton is down on her luck because her husband has squandered all their savings, leaving her almost penniless to continue her cooking business for the well to do families of London. One day in the middle of this predicament, she becomes upset for a moment with one of her helpers who has made an improper mixture. However, Louise catches her anger, and decides to make the most of it by adding a few eggs to make the mixture more palatable. Her reasoning is that she should save the last bit of mayonnaise rather than squander it. As a result, very soon after she attracts an order for her and her staff to make dozens, if not hundreds or even thousands of pies for a local distributor, in essence bringing her the funds she now desperately needed in the light of her husband's actions.

We see here two movements that attract sudden good fortune for her. First Louise gives up her anger toward her coworker. Second, she makes maximum use of a precious resource. Rather that squander it, she uses the very last drop for an improved concoction. In tandem with the energy of a reversal of attitude, Louise attracts an overwhelming response, saving her business. In essence, whenever we make maximum use of a resource, whether an ingredient, a component, a machine, money, water, etc. we move to a higher plane and release powerful energies that attracts sudden good fortune.

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.

 

Emerging Needs of Society
(Click here to see entries)

 

Honesty, Integrity, Truthfulness, Sincerity
(Click here to see entries)
 

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. (MSS)

 

TO BE CATEGORIZED

 

Values

 

 


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