I planned to write a story that showed the importance of values, so you can build a worthy company-culture as well as a bangin’ communication strategy that actually moves people.

I typed a bunch of stuff into Google to find examples and anecdotes. But I only found a heap of corporate, ho-hum crap.

After a little more searching, I found a beautifully articulated micro-article by Bernadette Jiwa—the global authority on storytelling—on the very subject. So, instead of rehashing her blog post, I decided to just quote the thing here.

The original post was published on Bernadette’s blog, The Story of Telling.

“In 1997 Steve Jobs was unhappy about how much Apple was spending on marketing and about the message the company was communicating. He realised that in an increasingly noisy world the chances for any company to be remembered were diminishing and that Apple needed to get really clear about what it was they wanted people to remember.

So he asked himself these three questions.

• Who is Apple?
  
• What do we stand for?
  
• Where do we fit in this world?
  

And came up with this elegant answer.

“What we’re about isn’t making boxes for people to get their jobs done, although we do that well. Apple’s about something more than that. Apple’s core value is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better.”

—Steve Jobs

From this starting point Apple’s ‘Think Different’ advertising campaign was born and it’s said that this also marked the company’s re-emergence.

When you’re building your business. When you’re busy being good enough from day to day, it’s easy to forget who you are. Sometimes what you stand for and where what you do fits into the world gets lost along the way.

That’s why it’s so important to understand and declare your values at the start. And why working out what you’re not is as good a place as any to begin.”

The problem now is that Apple has compromised those original values, according to smart Silicon Valley writers. They have become more of a luxury brand, instead of the tech revolutionaries that made them HUGE.  

Nevertheless, I think Bernadette’s piece sums the importance of values up pretty good, don’t you?

Until next time, 

Jayden O’Neil 

If you haven’t already, sign up for a free 5-day email series to unearth a bolder story, create consistent messaging and write on-brand, always. Yes?