Intuit had just 120 employees and one product. Ten years later, it's a billion-dollar company with thousands of employees and dozens of products. Worldwide, it is the winner in personal finance, bar none. The success is due in no small part to every Intuit employee knowing and sharing the company's vision and strategy. If vision is where the company is going, values tell how the company gets there.
Values outline acceptable behavior.
The CEO conveys values through actions and reactions to others. Slipping a ship schedule to meet quality levels sends a message of valuing quality. Not over-celebrating a team's heroic recovery when they could have avoided a problem altogether sends a message about prevention versus damage control. The CEO sets budgets within the firm. She funds projects which support the strategy, and ramps down projects which lose money or don't support the strategy.