Core Values Examples: 60+ Company Core Values (+ How to Define Yours)

If you are searching for core values examples to build or refresh your company's values, this guide gives you 60+ ready-to-use values, real company core values examples from well-known brands, and a step-by-step process to define and actually live them in 2026.

What are company core values?

Company core values are the fundamental, enduring principles that define how an organisation behaves, makes decisions, and treats its people, customers, and communities. They are the non-negotiable beliefs that guide everyday actions, shape culture, and explain the "how" behind a company's work, no matter how the strategy or market changes.

Unlike a slogan or a marketing tagline, strong core values are operational: they influence who you hire, how you reward people, which trade-offs you accept, and how you behave when nobody is watching. The best examples of core values read less like decoration and more like rules of engagement.

Why company core values matter

Core values are not soft branding. They are a measurable driver of culture, retention, and performance. When employees believe in and experience their company's values, engagement and loyalty rise, hiring gets easier, and decision-making gets faster because everyone is working from the same playbook.

That last figure is the real lesson of 2026: as more teams go hybrid and distributed, values only work when they are specific, lived, and reinforced. A generic list pinned to a wall does nothing. Values that shape hiring, reviews, and tough calls become a genuine competitive advantage, much like a clear content marketing strategy turns scattered effort into compounding results.

60+ core values examples (grouped by theme)

Below is a comprehensive list of core values, organised by the themes companies most often build around. Use these as a starting vocabulary, then shape them into short phrases that sound like your business. A single word ("Integrity") is memorable; a short phrase ("Do the right thing, even when it is hard") is clearer.

Integrity & ethics

• Integrity
• Honesty
• Transparency
• Trust
• Fairness
• Do the right thing
• Keep our promises

Customer focus

• Customer obsession
• Service mindset
• Put the customer first
• Empathy
• Deliver wow
• Solve real problems

Innovation & creativity

• Innovation
• Curiosity
• Creativity
• Think differently
• Embrace change
• Bias for action
• Bold bets

Teamwork & collaboration

• Teamwork
• Collaboration
• Respect
• Inclusion
• One team
• Win together
• Communicate openly

Growth & learning

• Growth mindset
• Continuous learning
• Stay humble
• Get better every day
• Embrace feedback
• Adaptability

Excellence & quality

• Excellence
• Craftsmanship
• Attention to detail
• Raise the bar
• Quality over quantity
• Take pride in the work

Accountability & ownership

• Accountability
• Ownership
• Reliability
• Discipline
• Do what you say
• Own the outcome

Diversity, people & community

• Diversity
• Belonging
• Compassion
• Gratitude
• Wellbeing
• Give back
• Sustainability
• Environmental responsibility

Drive & ambition

• Passion
• Resilience
• Grit
• Courage
• Determination
• Hunger
• Make it happen
• Dream big

A value only earns its place when people can picture the behaviour behind it. The table below maps common core values to what they actually look like in practice, which is the difference between a poster and a principle.

Real company core values examples

The most instructive company core values examples come from organisations that clearly act on what they publish. These are widely documented values from well-known brands, shown to illustrate different styles, from single words to vivid short phrases.

• Patagonia — environmental responsibility and "build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm," reflected in repair programmes and activism.
• Google — "Focus on the user and all else will follow," and the long-standing principle that you can be serious without a suit.
• Netflix — judgment, candour, and high performance, captured in its famous culture-and-freedom-with-responsibility philosophy.
• Zappos — ten values led by "Deliver WOW through service" and "Create fun and a little weirdness."
• Airbnb — "Champion the mission," "Be a host," and "Embrace the adventure."
• GitLab — Collaboration, Results, Efficiency, Diversity & Inclusion, Iteration, Transparency (the "CREDIT" values), published openly in its public handbook.
• Microsoft — a growth mindset, customer obsession, diversity and inclusion, and acting as one company.
• Salesforce — Trust, Customer Success, Innovation, Equality, and Sustainability.
• Coca-Cola — leadership, collaboration, integrity, accountability, passion, diversity, and quality.
• Amazon — customer obsession, ownership, bias for action, and the practice of "disagree and commit."

Your culture is not the values on the wall. It is the worst behaviour your best people are willing to tolerate. Values only mean something when they cost you something.

How to define your company's core values (step by step)

Defining core values is a discovery exercise, not a branding workshop. You are surfacing what is already true about your best people and your best decisions, then committing to it. Use this process:

1. Study your best people. List the behaviours of the employees you wish you could clone. The patterns are your values in raw form.
2. Examine your proudest and hardest decisions. What principle were you defending when you made a tough call you are still proud of?
3. Involve the team. Run interviews or a survey. Values imposed from the top rarely stick; co-created values get genuine buy-in.
4. Draft candidate values. Aim for five to seven. Write each as a short phrase plus one sentence of behaviour, so it is testable.
5. Pressure-test for distinctiveness. Cut any value that every competitor could also claim. If "integrity" is just table stakes for you, replace it with something sharper.
6. Define the trade-offs. Real values conflict sometimes. State which one wins when "speed" and "quality" collide.
7. Finalise and document. Keep the final list short, memorable, and written in your own voice.

How to live and embed your core values

A values list is worthless until it changes behaviour. Embed values into the systems that already run your company, so living them is the path of least resistance rather than an extra task.

• Hiring: add a values-based interview round; screen for the behaviours, not just the skills.
• Onboarding: teach values through stories of real decisions, not a slide of adjectives.
• Performance reviews: rate people on how they live the values, not only on output.
• Recognition: publicly call out value-driven behaviour each week or month.
• Decisions: name the value that broke a tie in important calls.
• Marketing & brand: let values shape your social media presence and customer experience, then use analytics to check that the promise matches reality.

Core values vs. mission vs. vision

These three statements are often confused, but each answers a different question. Core values describe how you behave; mission describes what you do today; vision describes the future you are working toward.

Common mistakes to avoid

Most weak values fail for the same predictable reasons. Avoid these and your values will earn their place:

• Generic, copy-paste values. If "integrity, teamwork, excellence" could belong to any company on earth, they describe none of them.
• Too many values. A list of twelve is a list of zero. People cannot recall or act on more than a handful.
• Aspirational fiction. Do not list values you wish were true. Employees instantly spot the gap between the poster and the boss.
• No teeth. Values with no consequences are slogans. If violating a value carries no cost, it is not a value.
• Set and forget. Values published once and never referenced again quietly become wallpaper.

Getting this right is foundational work — much like choosing a strong, distinctive identity when you come up with a business name. Both define who you are before a single customer interacts with you.

Frequently asked questions

How many core values should a company have?

Most effective companies settle on three to seven core values. Five is a common sweet spot: enough to capture what makes you distinctive, few enough that every employee can remember and act on them. Beyond about seven, recall and impact drop sharply.

What is the difference between core values and a mission statement?

Core values describe how you behave and make decisions (your character), while a mission statement describes what your company does and for whom (your purpose). Values are enduring; missions can evolve as the business grows.

What are some good examples of core values?

Strong, widely-used examples include integrity, customer obsession, innovation, accountability, teamwork, excellence, diversity and inclusion, and growth mindset. The best versions are written as short, specific phrases tied to a concrete behaviour rather than single abstract words.

How do you make core values stick?

Embed them into the systems that run your company: hire for them, onboard with real stories, review people against them, recognise value-driven behaviour publicly, and name the deciding value in tough calls. Values stick when they shape decisions, not when they are framed on a wall.

Can a small business or startup have core values?

Yes, and early is the best time. Defining values when you are small bakes them into your DNA before bad habits form, makes early hires easier, and gives a young team a shared way to make decisions when leadership cannot be in every room.

Turn your values into a brand customers feel

Defining great core values is step one; expressing them consistently across your website, content, and campaigns is what makes customers feel them. At D'Marketing Agency we help brands translate their values into a coherent digital presence — from web design and SEO to lead generation. Request a free quote using the form on this page and let's build a brand that lives its values.