As you know, in this ever-shifting world with its crisis of values, seeing how arbitrary and vulnerable the structures we surround ourselves with are, it is essential to have clean, clear, easily understood values.
It’s handy to have a blueprint that helps orientate us and our partners, and facilitates fair solutions and decisions. We have seven core values from which, whatever happens, we are never willing to deviate. We do this for three reasons:
- There is no such thing for us as a zero-sum game! Poker is a great game of strategy. Among many other virtues, it reflects human nature and holds up a mirror to the fundamental problem of society. We all know that one player can only profit from the loss of the others, and one player takes all. Carrying this logic through to real life is a classic mistake it is not sustainable indeed. It is out of sync with the laws of cosmic balance, although it will suffice at the card table.
- As we see it, cooperation can only be successful, lasing and mutually satisfactory if all parties concerned gain from it in a very real sense. This means from the standpoints of community, environment, economics, sustainability, and of course finance. There are no losers, only those who forget these universal perspectives.
- Value creation: Our activities deliver value, but through this, also create value. However, it is not merely shareholder and bottom line value above all. Naturally we do not function on a non-profit basis, but we undertake to make profit one of the many results of outstanding work, rather than the single aim of our activities. Behind true value creation must be true human effort, be it intellectual, physical or both.
“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” (Roy Disney)