Values Wall

Three Ships Media Values Wall

Discussion about the values of Three Ships Media began as soon as the company was founded. Three Ships Chairman Jeff Giesea, who once named a company after his favorite value (Fierce), pushed the company to articulate a set of principles that would define the team.

In 2010, the Three Ships team met several times to discuss values aligned with our vision of positioning the company as a magnet for talent and opportunity.

We also began capturing the way we lived out our values via sticky notes posted on a living “Values Wall.” When any individual observed a shipmate doing something exceptional that seemed to embody our culture, it was recognized on the Values Wall.

During Columbus Day 2010, an important company holiday given our name, 16 shipmates engaged in reflection on our values, our culture, and how we might formally articulate our most important principles. The next year the group added sticky notes to our Values Wall.  At several points there were small group or companywide discussions about the importance of our values.  Eventually, three core themes emerged that we believe define Three Ships Media: Learning, Entrepreneurship, and Integrity.  Yes, we love our customers. Yes, we believe in hard work.  Yes, we are team players. But these three qualities set us apart as an institution.

Our Values

  • Learning: 
    • Curiosity and bold thinking unleash new possibilities for growth.
    • Ideas have more power than positions or titles.
    • Play requires creativity, ambition, and risk-taking. It is a necessary ingredient for innovation.
    • Success is often the product of testing and failure, which requires scrappiness, hustle, resilience, and optimism.
  • Entrepreneurship: 
    • Individual initiative, vision, and commitment are the spark that builds great things.
    • We turn imagination and creativity into action through disciplined execution.
    • We celebrate success as a team; we maintain perspective (and a sense of humor) through setbacks.
    • Our aim is to build something of lasting value and we should have some fun along the way.
  • Integrity: 
    • We do the right thing and we honor the spirit of commitments.
    • A win-win ethos of value creation requires candor, directness, and individual respect.
    • We believe in accountability for results and incentives that reward success.
    • We aim for partnership and we think long-term.