More and more companies around the world have adopted formal statements of corporate values and managements routinely identify values as a top issue on their companies' agenda.

To explore these trends, ECCO International has executed a major study on corporate values. The 2006 ECCO International Corporate Values study surveyed 3,236 companies in 12 countries viz. Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, the UK and the US.

The survey helped identify 10 leading corporate values internationally as well as in each of the 12 countries. Dr Niren Suchanti, CEO of Pressman PR, the ECCO member in India, which played an important role in structuring and carrying out this study, says, "The benefits of corporate values transcend legal and regulatory compliance. The responses of companies clearly show that values are deemed most critical in two strategic areas: reputation and relationships. Strong brand equity and the overall standing of a company correlate highly with a commitment to corporate values."

The top 10 Corporate Values in India as well as internationally are given below:

The study found three groups of essential values. Major Values namely quality, innovation and customer satisfaction are among the top five values in every country with a few exceptions (nearly 40 per cent of the companies name them). Dominant Values are integrity, team spirit, environment and know-how (nearly 15 per cent of the companies mentioning them). Strong Values included success, social accountability, respect, competitiveness and value creation (10 per cent of companies mentioning them). Most companies indicated between three and seven values with the international average being around 5.

The values were segregated into eight categories - skills values, winning values, behavioural values, community values, relational values, self-fulfillment values, moral values and social values. A composite portrait of international corporate values would include two skill values, one winning value and one behavioural or community value.

The ranking of the value groups in India and internationally is shown in the table below :

ECCO International conducted the survey. The ECCO network studies corporate values and its impact on the various publics and adopts a value-based approach to make corporate communications consistent and successful on a long-term basis.

ECCO International is a network of independently owned and operated PR and marketing communications consultancies located in over 30 countries and headquartered in London. ECCO members are highly successful owner-managed agencies and have a combined fee income of over 40 million Euros (approx. Rs240 crores).