In Pursuit of Awesome: Our Company Values

Heads up: things are about to get wild and crazy at ImageX. Ok, not really, but new things _are_ happening. We've done a lot of navel-gazing over the past few months, thinking about who we are as a company and – more importantly – who we want to be. And, lint aside, we’ve resurfaced with a fresh new appreciation of our strengths and a passion to be even better.

It goes without saying that every company - and every individual - has their own set of values and aspirations, and ours is far from a one-size-fits-all solution (we think that would be incredibly boring ...). But in this age of transparency we thought we would save you the trouble of Googling us and cut right to the chase: this is who we are, what we aspire to and what we are ultimately all about.

1. Authentic Optimism

No one wants to be around a negative person, no matter how talented he or she is. Perpetual negativity spreads in a company faster than cooties at a Van Halen concert. Instead we want to be all about the silver lining, even if we have to work really, really hard to see it! We want to view problems as opportunities to work together towards joint solutions. Life is short (and careers are even shorter) and attitude is everything - so let's all be happy, shall we?

2. Quality Obsession

We wanna be web superheroes! (At least in the eyes of our clients). A "good job" simply isn't good enough. To achieve web superhero status we need to have a long-term commitment to exceptional quality and service. We want to treat each client’s business or establishment as if it were our own. We are constantly putting our processes and systems under rigorous scrutiny to find ways to do things more efficiently and effectively. It comes down to delivering the highest quality for the best value.

3. Effective communication

The key to communication, whether it's via Skype or carrier pigeon, is honesty. We take pride in our work and in the commitments we make to our clients, vendors and fellow team members. Of course, we'd like to be able to guarantee that our deadlines and estimates are 100% accurate every single time, and that's definitely a goal we are working towards (It's really what's expected of web superheroes). But the sad truth is that we're human - and imperfect. However, what we _can_ guarantee is that if there's a problem, we'll be straight about it and we’ll do everything in our power to fix it, because we are proud of our work and we value our clients more than our egos.

4. Always Evolving

One of the most important things we can do as a company and as individuals is to never stop learning. We want to push ourselves and each other to be reading more, learning more and growing more. Our industry changes so fast we're considering whiplash insurance. If we want to always be offering the best service and products to our customers, we need to be constantly changing too. We need to be able to read the trends and adapt quickly. To do this, we place a high value on professional development, innovation and thinking outside the box.

5. Succeeding Together

One of the (many) great things about working with the open source community is that there is always the chance to give back and invest in the lives and businesses of others. After all, our company benefits from the work of others in the Drupal community (thank you!). They say a rising tide floats all boats, and we want to be part of that rising tide by giving back whatever we can – things like source code, blog posts, presentations, and other contributions that may not always directly benefit our company but contribute to healthy growth all around.

So there you have it - the inner workings of ImageX. We're always trying to be better - better people, better team members, and a better company. We may not always live up to these values, but they are what we aspire to and are constantly working towards.