22Values on the Wall Versus Values in Action: What the Fortune 100 Reveal About Leadership
In September 2024, I ran an informal values audit using AI as my copilot. The exercise was simple: Collect the published corporate values of the Fortune 100 and use soft clustering to identify common themes. It wasn't peer‐reviewed academic research, but it was a surprisingly insightful demonstration of how artificial intelligence can support research and market research. The goal of this exercise was to step back and ask, “What do today's most successful organizations claim to stand for?”
The results were predictable yet telling. Across different industries, geographies, and company cultures, the same 10 values appeared again and again:
Integrity
Customer focus
Innovation
Excellence
Accountability
Teamwork
Continuous improvement
Care and sustainability
Respect
Trust
No surprises here. These values are the aspirational bedrock of modern business. If you're crafting a set of values for your company from scratch, this list would make a perfectly respectable starting point. But here's the real insight:
It's one thing to define values. It's another to live them.
This is where most organizations fall short and where most leaders face their greatest test.
In my book Leading with Culture (Tiryaki, 2024), I share research findings on culture as employee experience. One message from employees ...
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