Part 1: What is Entrepreneurship? Really
Values: The real foundation
Your values form the blueprint for everything you build.
Before trucks. Before logos. Before marketing. There are values.
Many new businesses begin by focusing on visible elements — branding, equipment, or marketing strategies. Those things matter. But they are not the true foundation of a business. The real foundation is the set of values that guide how the business operates, especially when things get difficult. You can have the best branding in your region, a fully wrapped truck, and a polished website. But when something goes wrong — and something always does — your values decide what happens next.
Values influence everyday decisions: how you treat customers, whether you cut corners, how you handle safety, and how you treat apprentices and employees. Over time, those decisions shape your reputation long before you realize it is happening.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Explain why values — not branding or equipment — form the real foundation of a business
- Identify and describe Lencioni’s four types of organizational values
- Distinguish between values that truly define a business and those that are simply minimum expectations
- Reflect on which values are currently guiding your own decisions as a business owner
Types of Organizational Values
Leadership researcher Patrick Lencioni describes four types of values that exist within organizations. Understanding the difference between them helps entrepreneurs think more clearly about the principles actually guiding their business.
Core values are the principles that truly define the organization. They guide decisions and behaviour even when following them is difficult. Aspirational values are the values the organization hopes to grow into over time — they reflect where the business wants to go, even if those values are not yet consistently practiced.
Permission-to-play values represent the minimum standards required to operate professionally. They are expected behaviours rather than distinguishing characteristics. Accidental values emerge unintentionally through habits, personalities, or circumstances rather than through deliberate decision-making.
Recognizing these differences helps entrepreneurs understand whether their stated values actually reflect how the business operates, or whether they are simply words on a website.
Watch
In the following short video, Patrick Lencioni explains the differences between the four types of values. Pay attention to which values define identity, which are simply expectations, which represent aspiration, and which may have developed unintentionally. As you watch, consider: which of these categories best describes the values currently shaping your decisions?
Apply It
Understanding the categories of values is one thing. Seeing how they function in real situations is another. Many trades businesses list values such as integrity, safety, and quality on their websites — but the important question is which of those are truly core values, which are aspirational, which are simply minimum expectations, and which have emerged accidentally over time.
In the activity below, sort several example values into Lencioni’s four categories. There are no trick answers, but pay attention to where you hesitate — those moments often reveal something important about how values actually operate.
Key Takeaways
- Values — not branding, equipment, or marketing — form the true foundation of a business, because they determine how you act when things get difficult
- Lencioni identifies four types of organizational values: core, aspirational, permission-to-play, and accidental
- Core values guide decisions even when doing so is hard; accidental values develop unintentionally and can undermine a business if left unexamined
- The values that show up in your daily decisions — not the ones on your website — are the ones that actually shape your reputation
Reflect
Take a moment to think about the values shaping your work right now. Which values currently guide how you make decisions? Which do you believe are truly core to how you operate — and which do you simply hope to grow into? Are there behaviours that may have developed accidentally?
If values are not defined intentionally, businesses often default to whatever feels most convenient in the moment. When pressure increases, convenience can replace principle. And convenience rarely builds trust.
