Company values should be more than just buzzwords on a wall in your office. At Localize, our values keep us focused on things that matter. In fact, our entire company was included in the process of creating them.
Our first step of the process was to look at groups of words and pick with ones resonated with us individually. From there, we met as a group to decide which ones were the most important. This lead to really amazing conversations about who we are in a deeper sense, beyond our initial thoughts, and challenged our internal beliefs. In typical Localize fashion, we moved the narrative into places that made us uncomfortable, as this is where we learn and grow.
Once we had the ideas together for our values, we started wordsmithing and editing to make sure we had a list of values we could live day-to-day. We also use them in our hiring process and as a resources while moving through the fast and furious change of a small business.
Here’s what our team came up with, our Localize Company Values:
Passion
Passion is our energy source! We are a bold, change-driven team that puts our energy towards what we think is important. Passion for change is what gets us out of bed in the morning.
Problem Solving
We’re all problem solvers. We use equal parts creativity, cleverness and dogged determination to break through challenges produce solutions. We keep agile and adaptable to find answers when circumstances change.
Empowerment
We empower grocers, vendors and consumers. We present the information that allows all of these people to educate consumers or tell their stories. We believe empowering people is the best way to create social change.
Integrity & Trust
We have integrity and we work hard to build trust. Consumers are asking for transparency in their food and product systems and that is what we sell. Our integrity and reliability are why people will look to us for answers.
Collaboration
We aren’t your typical company—we want to collaborate, not to conquer. There are a lot of people and groups related to what we do and we want to bring them altogether. We value the strength of others and want to build a community based on mutual benefit.
Care
We are humans first, that informs how we treat our partners and the other members of the Localize team. We genuinely care about the success of our partners and the other members of the Localize team.
One of the main pieces of our values came down to warmth, kindness, and truly caring about each other and our clients. The rest of our values speak to this theme and run into examples of how we’re different. For example, we all resonated with the word “innovate”. But when we took a step back and discussed what innovation means to us at any given time, we chose problem solving instead as it more aligned with what we do. We listen to our clients and help identify their needs and issues, both now and in the future. From there, we collaborate on ways where we can help. Can we adapt a process? Make changes to our technology? Roadmap new products and services? Our problem solving approach goes well above innovation.
Putting together our values was a great exercise in taking a good look at who we are as a team, what Localize means to us, and how we approach our partners. It’s also a wonderful tool for recruiting new people into the Localize family. To us, technical skills are a small part of what we’re looking for. The bigger picture is finding the gems that also live and breathe our values. Speaking of which, if you’re looking for a new career with a fabulous team who are passionate problem solvers who empower, trust, have integrity, collaborate, and care, check out our current job openings.
