ees are trusted, and trusting.

Members of the com-

pany are skilled in ways that the company appreciates
(de Geus 1997).
Furthermore, according to de Geus, the company
is receptive to the outside world, and leaders are
mindful of generations to come. The company is fis-
cally responsible; once it is secure, its capital assets
and economic activity are used to develop its poten-
tial. When it is threatened, the living company will
try to change the nature of its economic activity
before it lets its people go. The living company is a
learning organism, and it acts on the basis of a learn-
ing process (ibid).
Design firms hold core values, too. Values shape
firms as much as, if not more than, they affect the
businesses cited in De Geus’s work. Three powerful
value indicators in a design firm are decision making,
information sharing, and authority. People infer values
in how decisions are made on projects and on general
business questions: Do the most senior people make
all decisions, or are conclusions drawn through con-
sensus? What, and how, information is shared in the
firm also reflects the firm’s values. How generous are
firm leaders in communicating with people about
project and business matters? Does the firm convey
detailed information through formal presentations
and reports? Or incrementally, on a need-to-know
basis? Or casually through the office grapevine?
Authority and autonomy reflect values of impor-
tance to people at every level in a firm. To what
degree is responsibility delegated, and to whom?
What is the correlation between responsibility and
autonomy?
Classifying design firm values has been the pur-
pose of significant research conducted in the past 20

14 Competitive Edge