Medtronic: To the Letter
Medtronic officers are savvy enough to know that just having core values does little in terms of daily action. To give these values weight and significance, the company requires employees to sign a code of conduct statement each year that states their compliance with these core values. Immediate action is taken against violators of this code. For instance, when former CEO Bill George discovered that a newly promoted executive of Medtronic had violated the code, he asked for the man's immediate resignation. In addition, George publicized the event with full disclosure to the appropriate authorities so that "customers and employees would know with certainty what Medtronic stands for." On the acquisitions level, the company stands firm on its values and strives never to acquire another company that does not share its values.

Herb Kelleher: Consistency In Public and In Person
During several interviews with Kelleher, I discovered that he embodies tremendous consistency and integrity. Jim Wimberly comments:

"He's totally true to himself and totally consistent between his private life and his public life. He's totally consistent between his public speeches and his private speeches. You could look at a speech that Herb gave to the annual shareholders meeting of 2002 and compare it to his message to the field in 1992 and compare it to a letter to employees in 1982 and find tremendous consistency in terms of adherence to core values. So the absolute adherence to extraordinarily high professional principles of ethical conduct and fair dealing, is just remarkable over time. So he built up a reservoir of credibility not only among employees but other people."

Wimberly continues: "The other thing I would say about Herb is what you see is what you get. The public Herb is the private Herb. He doesn't have one persona for the TV cameras, the public Herb. It's not a Jekyll and Hyde situation where you have, when he's up in front of 1,000 employees he's one personality, but when he's in a small conference room he's another. No difference. Absolutely no difference."

Grameen Bank: The Sixteen Decisions
Along with Grameen's core values of discipline, unity, courage, and hard work, the majority of Grameen Bank members—mostly poor women from the different villages in Bangladesh—developed another set of core values for themselves called the Sixteen Decisions. They are:

• We shall follow and advance the four principles of the Grameen Bank— discipline, unity, courage, and hard work—in all parts of our lives.
• We shall bring prosperity to our families.
• We shall not live in dilapidated houses. We shall repair our houses and work toward constructing new houses at the earliest opportunity.
• We shall grow vegetables all year round. We shall eat plenty of them and sell the surplus.
• During the planting season, we shall plant as many seedlings as possible.
• We shall plan to keep our families small. We shall minimize our expenditures. We shall look after our health.
• We shall educate our children and ensure that they can earn enough to pay for their education.
• We shall always keep our children and the environment clean.
• We shall build and use pit latrines.
• We shall drink water from tube wells. If they are not available, we shall boil water or use alum to purify it.
• We shall not take any dowry at our sons’ weddings; neither shall we give any dowry at our daughters’ weddings. We shall keep the center from the curse of dowry. We shall not practice child marriage.
• We shall not commit any injustice, and we will oppose anyone who tries to do so.
• We shall collectively undertake larger investments for higher incomes.
• We shall always be ready to help each other. If anyone is in difficulty, we shall all help him or her.
• If we come to know of any breach of discipline in any center, we shall all go there and help restore discipline.
• We shall introduce physical exercises in all our centers. We shall take part in all social activities collectively.