Editorial:  Core Value in Entrepreneurship

Sahnya is the CEO | Owner, and editor of the SMB content hub TexasOnTheGO.com.  She has been working in the online publishing business since 2003 and has written over 500 articles and presented at more than 100 SMB and Diversity events.

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Visiting Small & Medium businesses in Texas is like taking a Ph.D. in Entrepreneurship.  There is always room for learning.  And you take your own spoon of the things that fit you the best.

This week as every other week I visit several companies around the state.  One of the things that resonate with me the most is the Core Value and how they can empower the employees. In a service-oriented company or a manufacturer, in a big city or rural area, in all industries.  

Each company embraces the Core Value in their own way.  Some companies make their employees “OWN IT”. For others is just one more page in the Operation Manual.

Why is important?

Individuals are driven by values.  People are shaped by values.  In a company every individual plays a role, doesn’t matter how big or small it is.  Each one of them has to be in aliment with the company and with their values.  They have to “FIT”.

Talking to a Texanspreneur CEO of an award winner staffing agency, with more than 30 years in the market, she mentioned how important is to coach candidates to help them understand and embrace the core of values of their new company in other to obtain their best performance and to be in alignment with the organizational culture.

Embrace IT

One of those company I visited embrace their Core of Values with specially designed posters display on their walls.  They make sure their employees get the opportunity to see them as often as possible.

How to embrace them in a more decentralized structure, like what you may have in a manufacturing company?

One of the manufacturing companies I visited taught me how a core value can be alive, dynamic and interactively powerful.  By including one of the values in the back of their uniforms each employee is able to choose the value that best resonates with them and simultaneously expresses their individualism.

Not only are they promoting the company, but also they are taking those values outside their physical space and into the street.  They are proudly sharing a little be of who they are, what they stand for and about the place they work for.  

Our World is Not Flat.

“Our World is Not Flat” was one of those values.    And it resonates with me because the statement is about being able to PIVOT as part of your everyday strategy.    The possibility to be open to a change of curse.  To understand that nothing is written in stone, but in ice.  That INNOVATION required flexibility.

For Small & Medium size business TO BE ABLE to change course is one of the competitive advantages in comparison to bigger companies that need more time and investment to change course.

Core Values as Part of the Company Culture

How to embrace your core value? You may ask me. 

The Core Value of the organization needs to come from the grassroots and in the present time (NOW).  A frequent mistake is to have a core value base in what you want to be (FUTURE).  Employees care about what they know.  What they love, and if the company makes them “vibrate” then it will make them work better and the outcome is better for everyone.

Visiting companies around Texas I have learned a lot about how to develop that sense of being part of something, “Part of the Family”.  Companies that inspired you always make you feel like a winner.  Make you feel like a Texanspreneur.