Intuit Operating Values

Intuit was founded in 1983 with a commitment to integrity and fair play — and that commitment has always been central to our business ever since then. As the company grew, employees wanted to preserve the spirit of the principles they had already embraced as a written legacy for the future. In 1993, we shut down for a day so all employees could gather to brainstorm how to clearly define our vision, mission and operating values.

Ideas were gathered and refined over the next few months by employee teams and formalized as our Operating Values. These same values are taught today and, in concert with our Code of Conduct & Ethics (which applies to all employees, including our CEO and senior financial officers), remain the foundation of our actions and decisions.

Operating Values

We outline the guidelines for this organization in the following ten values. Living by these values creates the type of environment we all desire: an environment in which we exceed the expectations of our customers and those of each other, where we don't just satisfy people, we wow them.

1. Integrity Without Compromise

Intuit is built on integrity. In all we do, we maintain the highest standards, never approaching what could be considered questionable behavior. On this, we never compromise.

Having integrity means more to us than simply the absence of deception. It means we are completely forthright in all our dealings. We say what needs to be said, not simply what people want to hear.

Integrity builds trust. Only through trust do successful, long-term working relationships flourish.

2. Do Right by All Our Customers

Doing right means acting with the best interests of the other party in mind. We commit ourselves not only to meeting expectations, but to exceeding them.

An important word in this phrase is all — it includes every relationship at Intuit. We treat each other, our business partners, and our shareholders with the same care and respect with which we treat our customers. In other words, there is a customer for everything we do. While some of us directly serve the customers who purchase our products, each of us serves customers within the company.

We know we've succeeded in doing right when all our customers feel that they have benefited from their association with us.

3. It's the People

People are the foundation of Intuit's success. In fact, people are so important that the primary job of each manager here is to help people be more effective in their jobs and to help them grow and develop at Intuit.

We have great people who want to do well, are capable of doing great things, and come to work fired up to achieve them. Great people flourish in an environment that liberates and amplifies their energy. Managers create this environment through support, respect, and trust.

Support means giving people the tools, information, training, and coaching they need to succeed. It means continuous effort to develop people's skills. Great managers help people excel and grow.

Respect means understanding people's unique career goals and being sensitive to their life choices. It means helping people achieve these career goals consistent with the needs of the company.

Trust means freeing people to do their jobs and to make decisions. It means knowing people want to do well and believing that they will.

4. Seek the Best

We seek the best in two ways: we cast wide nets to find the best people to hire and the best ideas to adopt, and we base decisions regarding them on facts. While all decisions involve some judgment, we use fact-based analysis as much as we can.

To ensure we find the best person for the job, we aggressively seek across diverse, qualified applicant pools. When we've done our job right, the best person for most jobs will be someone here at Intuit. Most importantly, we evaluate solely on the basis of performance and abilities. There are no other criteria for hiring and promoting at Intuit.

The same principle is true for ideas. We actively seek the best ideas whether they are developed here or are in practice at another company. We have no bias; we adopt the ideas that will most help our company.

5. Continually Improve Processes

Quality is the result of a process of inputs, procedures, tools, training, support systems, and materials. Therefore, to improve the quality of results, we must improve the processes.

How do we know if a process needs improving? The answer is, it always does. We can always get better. We strive continually to improve our processes, to help people do their jobs better, and to produce higher quality at lower cost.

While managers have a special responsibility to focus on processes, everyone has a responsibility to improve them. We all have two jobs: doing the daily work and improving the processes we work with.

6. Speak, Listen, and Respond

At Intuit, we all have the responsibility to speak up. When we do, we deserve an open ear and a thoughtful response. Without open communication and expression, ideas get lost, needed improvements aren't made, and people get frustrated.

Managers at Intuit have a responsibility to create an environment that encourages people to speak openly, knowing they will be listened to when they do. Listening, however, is only a first step. It's also key to respond — if not through direct action, then through acknowledgment or feedback.

Speaking up doesn't mean just talking openly with your manager. When you have an idea or a concern, the right thing to do is talk to the person who's best able to act on it, no matter what role that person has in the company or what department is involved.

7. Teams Work

The reasons to work in teams are simple: by building on each other's ideas and skills, we make better decisions and produce better results than we could by working alone.

Teams are also important because so many decisions impact multiple areas of the company. We find it works best to assemble a team of people with the relevant skills and let them make the decisions.

Teamwork means focusing on the team's success, realizing that ultimately the team's success is your success. It also means you succeed by helping other members of the team to succeed. The result? Decisions that are not "mine," not "yours," but better.

Great teams elicit everyone's participation and actively seek out both dissenting and favorable opinions; however, once the team makes a decision, all members commit to it.

8. Customers Define Quality

The customer is the most important judge of the quality of a product or process. Therefore, we gauge the success of a product, service, or internal process based upon how well it delights the customer.

Part of adapting to changing customer needs and desires is knowing what our customers want. Intuit has triumphed in part because we actively solicit input and invent new ways to solicit that input from our customers.

Quality is something we incorporate throughout all our processes. It's not something we simply look for at the end of a process. It means keeping all our customers in mind each step of the way.

9. Think Smart, Move Fast

Another aspect of quality is the ability to respond to customer needs quickly. In addition, the company's success often depends on our ability to act on market changes and new opportunities. To meet these challenges, we must think smart and move fast.

Customers want to benefit from our great ideas sooner, not later. So do we. Moving fast enables us to learn and make better decisions over time. That's because the best learning comes from trying out more things in the real world.

We operate in a fast moving market. Rapidly responding to competition and new opportunities is essential for our continued success.

Does this mean we endorse thoughtless action? Not at all. What enables us to move fast is rapid, but thoughtful, planning. And by improving our processes through focusing on what's essential, enabling people to take informed risks, and using mistakes as opportunities to learn, we permit ourselves to think smarter and move faster.

10. We Care and Give Back

At Intuit, one of our most enduring values is our genuine care for the people with whom we work. While our responsibility to Intuit people will always come first, we also believe that with our success comes the responsibility to give back to our community.

We seek to contribute to our community in ways that reflect broadly held values, have meaningful impact, draw upon our unique strengths as a corporation, and, whenever possible, reinforce our business objectives.