VALUES
Our values are fundamental to our success. They are the foundation of our company, define who we are and set us apart from the competition. They underlie our vision of the future, our business strategies and our decisions, actions and behaviors. We live by them. They endure.
Four core values are at the heart of Levi Strauss & Co.: Empathy, Originality, Integrity and Courage. These four values are linked. As we look at our history, we see a story of how our core values work together and are the source of our success.
Empathy—Walking in Other People's Shoes
Empathy begins with listening ... paying close attention to the world around us ... understanding, appreciating and meeting the needs of those we serve, including consumers, retail customers, shareholders and each other as employees.
Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis listened. Jacob was the tailor who in the early 1870s first fashioned heavy cotton cloth, thread and metal rivets into sturdy "waist overalls" for miners seeking durable work pants. Levi in turn met Jacob's needs for patenting and mass production of the product, enthusiastically embracing the idea and bringing it to life. The rest is history: The two created what would become the most popular clothing in the world — blue jeans.
Our history is filled with relevant examples of paying attention to the world around us. We listened. We innovated. We responded.
- As early as 1926 in the United States, the company advertised in Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese, reaching out to specific groups of often-neglected consumers.
- In the 1930s, consumers complained that the metal rivets on the back pockets of our jeans tended to scratch furniture, saddles and car seats. So we redesigned the way the pockets were sewn, placing the rivets underneath the fabric.
- In 1982, a group of company employees asked senior management for help in increasing awareness of a new and deadly disease affecting their lives. We quickly became a business leader in promoting AIDS awareness and education.
We are market driven, which means that we walk in our consumers' shoes. In the company's early years, that meant making durable clothes for workers in the American West. Now, it means anticipating the casual clothing needs of a broad range of consumers around the world. Understanding and appreciating needs — consumer insight — is central to our commercial success.
Being empathetic also means that we are inclusive. Levi Strauss' sturdy work pants are sold worldwide in more than 110 countries. Their popularity is based on their egalitarian appeal and originality. They transcend cultural boundaries. Levi's® jeans — the pants without pretense — are not just for any one part of society. Everyone wears them.
Inclusiveness underlies our consumer marketing beliefs and way of doing business. We bring our Levi's®, Dockers® and Levi Strauss Signature® brands to consumers of all ages and lifestyles around the world. We reflect the diverse world we serve through the range and relevancy of our products and the way we market them.
Likewise, our company workforce mirrors the marketplace in its diversity, helping us to understand and address differing consumer needs. We value ethnic, cultural and lifestyle diversity. And we depend and draw upon the varying backgrounds, knowledge, points of view and talents of each other.
As colleagues, we also are committed to helping one another achieve exceptional performance. We are sensitive to each other's goals and interests, and we strive to ensure our mutual success through outstanding leadership, career development and supportive workplace practices.
Empathy also means engagement and compassion. Giving back to the people we serve and the communities we operate in is a big part of who we are. Levi Strauss was both a merchant and a philanthropist - a civic-minded leader who believed deeply in community service. His way lives on. The company's long-standing traditions of philanthropy, community involvement and employee volunteerism continue today and contribute to our commercial success.
Originality—Being Authentic and Innovative
Levi Strauss started it and forever earned a place in history. Today, the Levi's® brand is an authentic American icon, known the world over.
Rooted in the rugged American West, Levi's® jeans embody freedom and individuality. They are young at heart. Strong and adaptable, they have been worn by generations of individuals who have made them their own. They are a symbol of frontier independence, democratic idealism, social change and fun. Levi's® jeans are both a work pant and a fashion statement — at once ordinary and extraordinary. Collectively, these attributes and values make the Levi's® brand unlike any other.
Innovation is the hallmark of our history. It started with Levi's® jeans, but that pioneering spirit permeates all aspects of our business — innovation in product and marketing, workplace practices and corporate citizenship. Creating trends. Setting new standards. Continuously improving through change. For example:
- In 1984 we relaunched our original, Levi’s® Shrink-To-Fit® 501® jeans, and transformed the jeans category. In addition to marketing rigid and rinsed 501® jeans through groundbreaking TV advertising, we also introduced innovative product finishes involving techniques such as stonewashing and bleaching. Increasingly popular for years to come on all styles of Levi’s® jeans, these finishes dramatically changed the look of jeans fashion worldwide and substantially fueled Levi Strauss & Co.’s growth.
- With the introduction of the Dockers® brand in 1986, we created an entirely new category of casual clothing in the United States, bridging the gap between suits and jeans. A year later, Dockers® khakis had become the fastest growing apparel brand in history. Throughout the 1990s, we were instrumental in changing what office workers wear on the job.
- In 2003, we created a new brand to offer stylish casual clothing to a growing number of value-conscious consumers worldwide. Initially launched in the United States, the Levi Strauss Signature® brand was the first full range of quality jeanswear for men, women and children available in the U.S. mass channel. We drove category growth within this channel by establishing a premium jeanswear marketing position that did not previously exist. And we did this without cannibalizing our core Levi’s® brand business.
Now, more than ever, constant and meaningful innovation is critical to our commercial success. The worldwide business environment is fiercely competitive. Global trade, instantaneous communications and the ease of market entry are among the forces putting greater pressure on product and brand differentiation. To grow continuously, it is imperative that we change, competing in new and different ways that are relevant to the shifting times.
As the "makers and keepers" of Levi Strauss' legacy, we must look at the world with fresh eyes and use the power of ideas to improve everything we do across all dimensions of our business, from modest improvements to total reinventions. We must create product news that comes from the core qualities of our brands — comfort, style, value and the freedom of self-expression — attributes that consumers love and prefer.
Integrity—Doing the Right Thing
Ethical conduct and social responsibility characterize our way of doing business. We are honest and trustworthy. We do what we say we are going to do.
Integrity includes a willingness to do the right thing for our employees, brands, the company and society as a whole, even when personal, professional and social risks or economic pressures confront us. This principle of responsible commercial success is embedded in the company's experience. It continues to anchor our beliefs and behaviors today, and is one of the reasons consumers trust our brands. Our shareholders expect us to manage the company this way. It strengthens brand equity and drives sustained, profitable growth and superior return on investment. In fact, our experience has shown that our "profits through principles" approach to business is a point of competitive advantage.
This values-based way of working results in innovation:
- Our commitment to equal employment opportunity and diversity predates the U.S. Civil Rights movement and federally mandated desegregation. We opened integrated factories in California in the 1940s. In 1960, we combined our need for more production and our desire to open manufacturing plants in the American South into an opportunity to make change; we led our industry by sending a strong message that we would not locate new plants in Southern towns that imposed segregation. Our approach changed attitudes and helped to open the way for integration in other companies and industries.
- In 1991, we were the first multinational company to develop a comprehensive code of conduct to ensure that individuals making our products anywhere in the world would do so in safe and healthy working conditions and be treated with dignity and respect. Our Terms of Engagement are good for the people working on our behalf and good for the long-term reputation of our brands.
Trust is the most important value of a brand. Consumers feel more comfortable with brands they can trust. Increasingly, they are holding corporations accountable not only for their products but also for how they are made and marketed. Our brands are honest, dependable and trusted, a direct result of how we run our business.
Integrity is woven deeply into the fabric of our company. We have long believed that "Quality Never Goes Out of Style®." Our products are guaranteed to perform. We make them that way. But quality goes beyond products: We put quality in everything we do.
Courage—Standing Up For What We Believe
It takes courage to be great. Courage is the willingness to challenge hierarchy, accepted practices and conventional wisdom. Courage includes truth telling and acting resolutely on our beliefs. It means standing by our convictions. For example:
- It took courage to transform the company in the late 1940s. That was when we made the tough decision to shift from dry goods wholesaling, which represented the majority of our business at the time, and to focus instead on making and selling jeans, jean jackets, shirts and Western wear. It was a foresighted — though risky — decision that enabled us to develop and prosper.
- In the 1980s, we took a similar, bold step to expand our U.S. channels of distribution to include two national retail chains, Sears and JCPenney. We wanted to provide consumers with greater access to our products. The move resulted in lost business in the short term because of a backlash from some important retail customers, but it set the stage for substantial growth.
- We also demonstrated courage in our workplace practices. In 1992, Levi Strauss & Co. became the first Fortune 500 company to extend full medical benefits to domestic partners of employees. While controversial at the time, this action foreshadowed the widespread acceptance of this benefit and positioned us as a progressive employer with prospective talent.
With courage and dedication, we act on our insights and beliefs, addressing the needs of those we serve in relevant and significant ways. We do this with an unwavering commitment to excellence. We are a team of high achievers. We hold ourselves accountable for attaining the high performance standards and results that are inherent in our goals. We learn from our mistakes. We change. This is how we build our brands and grow our business. This is how we determine our own destiny and achieve our vision of the future.
VISION
The story of Levi Strauss & Co. and our brands is filled with examples of the key role our values have played in meeting consumer needs. Likewise, our brands embody many of the core values that our consumers live by. This is why our brands have stood the test of time.
Generations of people have worn our products as a symbol of freedom and self-expression in the face of adversity, challenge and social change. They forged a new territory called the American West. They fought in wars for peace. They instigated counterculture revolutions. They tore down the Berlin Wall. Reverent, irreverent — they all took a stand.
Indeed, it is this special relationship between our values, our consumers and our brands that is the basis of our success and drives our core purpose. It is the foundation of who we are and what we want to become:
People love our clothes and trust our company.
We will market and distribute the most appealing and widely worn apparel brands.
Our products define quality, style and function.
We will clothe the world.