"Core what?" Epilogue

Brand manager: “Yes, community is an important attribute for X, but I’m afraid I will not be able to continue this discussion. The reason is that I have to give other initiatives higher priority.”
Henrik: “That’s okay, but can you please tell me your core values anyway? I have a personal interest now.”
“I’m sorry, Henrik, but since we are not taking this further I don’t want to communicate these. The core values are building blocks we use to arrive at our pay-off, and nothing I want to share at this time. Hope you understand my position.”
“Absolutely. I don’t want to pry if they are company secrets. I just think core values are something a company should be proud of and loudly declare to the world, like I do at the bottom of every e-mail I send out. Plus, it becomes impossible to judge if a sponsoring idea is aligned with your core values or not if you can’t find out what these are.”

So in the end I failed. Sorry. For the record, the core values for my one-man company are: fairness, integrity, compassion, joy and quality. Let me know if you don’t think I’m living up to them.