Cameron Herold argues that 95% of business leaders can't recite their own company's values, making them aspirational slogans rather than genuine core values. He uses a jigsaw puzzle framework with core values, purpose, a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, and a one-year plan as foundational elements. Real values must be memorable and lived daily, not just posted on walls.
Chapters
I visualize the jigsaw puzzle as having these core components. The first component is really the picture on the front of the box, right? Your vivid vision. And then for me, the four corners of your jigsaw puzzle are your core values, your core purpose, your BHAG, which is your big hairy audacious goal that Jim Collins talks about, and then your one-year plan. Do you know that I left College Pro Painters in 1994? Elon Musk's younger brother worked for me that summer. I hired Kimbal Musk and then also his cousin Peter Rive, who built SolarCity. They were both franchisees for me in 1993. So I leave College Pro in October of '94, 31, 32 years ago. The core values for College Pro Painters: deliver what you promise, respect the individual, pride in all you do, and find a better way. Now, if I can recite the 4 core values for a company that I worked for 32 years ago, I guarantee you if I walked up to a whole bunch of you who have core values in your company, that 95% of you couldn't recite them. And you don't want to test me on that because I know I'm right. I could bet every single one of you $100 in the room and I would walk out with thousands of dollars that most of you say you have core values, but you don't even know them, which means your employees don't know them. And you certainly don't live them because you have people coming to work every day who break your core values, which means they're not core values. They're merely aspirational core values.
