The importance of company values: Curiosity as key to innovation, engagement, and success
Company values shape the way employees make decisions, take action, and behave each day, contributing to a positive employee experience and business success. However, when there is a disconnect between company values and personal values, it can negatively impact engagement and performance. This article explores ABB’s values-driven culture. The core value of Curiosity is highlighted as a key driver of staying open minded, innovation, and going beyond.
Web Story
6min
2026-03-25
Why do company values matter?
What are company values?
<p>Company values are guiding principles that shape decision-making, behaviors, and actions within an organization. They form the foundation of company culture, which often reflects these values in practice. Through core values, organizations can clearly convey their goals and help employees understand the reasoning behind key decisions.<sup>1</sup></p>What is the business case for having corporate values?
<p>Company culture and corporate values shape employee behavior, which affects the success of business initiatives, as reported in research published in the International Research Journals and the Future Business Journal.<sup>2,3</sup> Values can also help attract and keep talent people.<sup>4</sup></p>What are the risks if company values are misaligned?
<p>A report by the Barrett Values Centre suggests that, where there is a lack of alignment between company culture, its core values and the personal values of employees, this can result in low business performance and lower levels of staff engagement.<sup>4</sup></p>Benefits and challenges of curiosity in the workplace
Fostering curiosity is recognized as a driver for growth, innovation, engagement, and success
<p>(Curiosity Institute)<sup>5</sup></p>Employees who are curious identify inefficiencies and propose more effective alternatives
<p>(Harvard Business Review)<sup>6</sup></p>80% of surveyed executives reported annual savings of $100,000 for smaller organizations to over $1 million for larger organizations due to curiosity-driven initiatives
<p>(Global Journal of Business Management)<sup>7</sup></p>While 83% of executives believed their organizations encouraged curiosity, only 52% of employees agreed
<p>(Momentive and INSEAD)<sup>6</sup></p>Barriers that inhibit curiosity in the workplace include fear, assumptions, technology, and environment
<p>(Heliyon, A Cell Press Journal)<sup>8</sup></p>Workplaces may inadvertently discourage curiosity and questioning by prioritizing efficiency
<p>(Forbes)<sup>9</sup></p>Values & Behaviors at ABB
At ABB, we know that our people and culture make the difference. It is our expertise and curiosity that take performance to a new level and bring customers to us with their biggest challenges.
We developed our four values—Courage, Care, Curiosity and Collaboration—by listening to our employees. Together with accompanying behaviors, they shape everything we do, guide how we act and interact with each other, customers, partners, and society. That’s why company values matter at ABB.
Curiosity as a company value
<p>Under our value of Curiosity, we have three guiding behaviors. </p>
Stay Open Minded
<p>We are receptive to new ideas, invite creative perspectives, and ask for feedback</p>Go Beyond
<p>We ask: “What if?”, step back to look at the big picture from several angles and think one level up.</p>Innovate
<p>We experiment to find innovative solutions that help our customers thrive, and we learn throughout the process.</p>Demonstrating real values examples at ABB
Discover how curiosity drives the development of new programs and shapes how our ABB team members and interns approach their work.
Learn more about the practice-integrated bachelor’s degree in Switzerland through the link below.
“I received the Curiosity Award in Mexico for developing an automated order audit tool that significantly improved our internal processes. This required going beyond my assigned tasks, investigating the root cause, and building a tool that added real value to the team. Curiosity drives people to go beyond surface-level understanding and investigate issues more deeply, which is key to finding effective and innovative solutions.”
- Joel Montes, Product Engineer, ABB Mexico
How we embrace Curiosity at ABB
Manager series training
<p>Managers learn about the Values & Behaviors, how to support their team’s growth, and how to apply them in everyday leadership.</p>Toolkits
<p>Toolkits help our employees have meaningful conversations about how we bring our Values & Behaviors to life and how we can continue growing together.</p>Internal microsite
<p>Our company intranet provides employees with information about our Values & Behaviors.</p>Engagement
<p>Our engagement survey regularly measures how employees feel about our values and these results remain positive, reflecting support across the organization. We encourage our teams to review scores to drive ongoing improvements.</p>How we spark Curiosity for employees and beyond
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Learn, Connect, Grow
Our Learn, Connect, Grow approach fosters an environment where employees are encouraged to be curious and take ownership of their career and growth. We offer a variety of learning pathways, toolkits, and online resources to support our colleagues, as well as leadership development programs.
Accelerators
ABB Accelerator is more than just a hackathon competition. It is complemented by a range of high-value business activities, including the AI Boost conference, product showcases, learning sessions, and networking opportunities. The aim is to craft solutions that deliver real value for ABB businesses and customers. Our accelerator program has received a Stellar Award in the Service & Solution Category and two Stevie Awards in the Event Hackathon and Achievement in Global Collaboration categories.
SynerLeap
SynerLeap, our innovation growth hub, is a global platform connecting 200+ startups across 26 countries. It provides access to ABB experts and infrastructure to accelerate collaboration, winning customers, scale, and growth.
ABB’s Startup Challenges
These challenges are a proven model to co-develop minimum viable products and pilot new technologies.
Partnerships
Our partnerships with other leaders allow us to co-innovate and create success together.
How ABB does business
Join the team that runs what runs the world
Sources:
- Culture vs. Values: What's the Difference? (With Examples) - Indeed.com
- The role of corporate culture in international business success: A comparative study – International Research Journals
- Do corporate values have value? The impact of corporate values on financial performance - Future Business Journal, Springer Nature Link
- The Importance of Values in Building a High-Performance Culture — BVC
- The ROI of Curiosity - Curiosity Institute
- Research: 83% of Executives Say They Encourage Curiosity. Just 52% of Employees Agree - HBR
- Assessing the Financial Benefits of a Culture of Curiosity in the C-Suite - Global Journal of Business Management
- Developing and testing inhibitors of curiosity in the workplace with the Curiosity Code Index – Heliyon, A Cell Press Journal
- Organizations Are Saving Millions By Embracing Curiosity—Here’s The Proof -Forbes