In the fast-moving and sometimes-cutthroat tech sector, it can be easy to overlook the core values that underlie many of the big name companies we hear about. Yet, the more a company grows, often the more important those baseline values become.
An infographic published by Olathe, Kansas-based MidAmerica Nazarene University outlines the core values and beliefs of seven of the largest tech giants in the world. Some of the companies' products, such as Apple, embody the values the company was founded on, which in this case, are simplicity and selectivity. For others, such as Amazon, the way the company functions is representative of its values. For Amazon, these are frugality and speed.
The graphic demonstrates how different companies can share the same values and vice versa. The authors cite the example of Google and Amazon, whose core competencies are different as they focus on delivering information and goods, respectively. Yet they both place an enormous emphasis on speed.
Here are the top seven tech companies and the core values and beliefs associated with them based on the infographic.
1. Facebook's core values are ownership, fairness and generosity, ethics and corporate citizenship, freedom, democracy and one world. The company operates under the core idea that people should own their information.
2. IBM's core values are ethics and corporate citizenship, fairness and generosity, respect, stockholder obligation, innovation/thinking big and excellence. The company's basic belief is respect for the individual and for his or her rights and dignity.
3. Microsoft's core values are excellence, self-improvement, self-criticism, integrity and honesty, openness, respect and ethics and corporate citizenship. The company concentrates on striving for success, but heeds the lessons of failure.
4. Google's core values are innovation and big thinking, one world, democracy, speed, selectivity, openness and ethics and corporate citizenship. The company's founders built Google around the idea that work should be challenging, and the challenge should be fun.
5. Oracle's core values are fairness and generosity, ethics and corporate citizenship, communication, collaboration, respect, integrity and honesty, innovation/thinking big and compliance. The company strives for its employees to make excellence and quality a part of day-to-day work processes and seek continuous improvement in what they do.
6. Amazon's core values are excellence, detail orientation, innovation and thinking big, being right, speed, frugality, simplicity, ownership and courage. The company believes in searching for opportunity where one might not expect to find it.
7. Apple's core values are ownership, simplicity, courage, selectivity and collaboration. The company believes in the value of saying no to a majority of new things, so it can focus on the few ideas that are truly important and meaningful to the company.