This week I met with Martin Higginson, chief executive of Netplay, and we discussed company values and culture. Martin is a serial entrepreneur who has been running businesses all of his adult life. You might remember him as the man who was famously removed by his own board when he was chief executive of Monstermob, only to be reinstated to the board 18 months later after its share price collapsed.

Higginson has just completed a process with Netplay where he has defined is mission statements, ethos and ambitions with his team. During the course of the discussion he showed me a very interesting report by the Harvard Business Review entitled ‘Building Your Company’s Vision’. The report looks at the world’s most successful companies and analyses what sets them apart. One of the key quotes is as follows:

“Companies that enjoy enduring success have core values and a core purpose that remain fixed while their business strategies and practices endlessly adapt to a changing world.”

Essentially the report recommends that business owners with big ambitions set in stone values which they can imagine holding on to for the next 50-100 years. Companies such as Sony, Walt Disney, Procter and Gamble and Hewlett Packard have all done this and have stuck to them in the face of massive technological or cultural change.

Is it time to define your values?