Posted on Apr 21, 2014

One Company that Claims to Have Heart

Once registered, a corporation becomes a living breathing entity. Customers buy from it. Suppliers sell to it. And Governments make sure they extract tax from it.

It’s interesting that leaders come and leaders go. Yet, the corporation carries on, doing business as usual.

When many look at a business, they see something cold and hard. They view it as having no heart.

But a business is made up of people. And every person that works in that business has a heart. So clearly, it’s possible for a business to have a heart.

One company that claims to have a heart is Genworth Financial

The Promise of Genworth

Genworth Financial is a Virginia-based financial services company, which has a long history in life insurance. The have assets exceeding $100 billion, with offices in 25 countries.

While they don’t refer to them specifically as values, Genworth does publicly state three specific qualities that define their brand.

Heart: We make a difference
Integrity: We do the right thing
Excellence: We work to make our company the best it can be

These are all part of their “promise”. In fact, they’ve trademarked this statement:

A promise kept is words in action.^SM

In other words, the Genworth brand increases in value if its 6,000 employees can keep their promise to demonstrate Heart, Integrity, and Excellence.

But only one of these likely makes a significant difference: Heart.

A Company with Heart

While Integrity and Excellence are important values, they are two of the top three common values shared by most other companies (as shown in my research).

But heart is different.

Not many companies would claim this value. Yet, Genworth did.

Genworth defines “Heart” this way:

We make a difference by:

Being there for our policyholders and customers when they need us most.
Supporting a caring and collegial environment with rewarding work and growth opportunities.
Contributing to healthy communities where we live and work through our charitable giving and volunteer efforts.
Providing information and resources to help people prepare for their financial security.

An area this may be most visible – and measurable – is within the community.

Genworth claims to be actively involved in the communities where their employees live and work. Employees are encouraged to be “everyday champions” focusing on 2 key areas:

Education and underserved youth.
Basic needs and support for seniors.

This grassroots method of “making a difference” might be considered boring by some people. But the heart appears to be working, as the business has survived since 1871.