Why do company values matter only if you actually live them when nobody is watching?

Because values that aren't lived become window dressing. Kris Kluver, in The Dysfunctional Family Office, uses Enron as the cautionary tale. One of the largest corporate frauds in American history. When executives were arrested, they walked out past values literally chiseled in stone. Integrity was one of them. Stated values without lived behavior produce nothing. Worse, they produce the opposite. They reassure the company and the family that the work is done because the words are written down. The actual test of family values is simple. Watch what people do when nobody is checking. Watch the small decisions made in private. Watch how people behave under pressure. If the daily behavior doesn't match the stated values, the values don't exist. The fix isn't to write better statements. It's to start living them when it's costly.