Presenters: Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com
Zappos focus is on the customer experience, to an almost fanatical extent. In pursuit of customer service, they’ve coined the term, “Delivering Happiness” to describe their mission. Much like he describes in his book of the same name, Hsieh talked about how they focus on culture. It’s their #1 priority, and he feels that if they can create the right culture and focus on customers, the results will follow.
Hsieh has done a lot of research in his own pursuit of happiness, and outlined a framework for happiness. It requires these elements:
- Perceived control
- Perceived progress
- Connectedness
- Vision/meaning (being part of something bigger)
They use these concepts to select the right employees and focus on growing them from a job to a career, to eventually making it a calling. Additionally, there are 3 types of happiness
- Pleasure – chasing the next high (Rock star)
- Engagement – time flies – flow
- Meaning/higher purpose – being part of something bigger than yourself
Therefore, in order to build a great business, Hsieh focused on ensuring the culture provided employees with pleasure, passion, and purpose. They hire for the culture and won’t hire someone who is great if they don’t fit in. Many have heard of their $2000 offer, where they offer new employees a bonus for leaving the company after training if they don’t feel they are a fit. Things like connecting employees with twitter have helped improve all of those areas, as well as a sense of connectedness. Ultimately, the culture is about commitable core values. It’s not just “a meaningless plaque on the wall,” it’s about being willing to hire and fire based on those values. In fact, if you Google any one of Zappos core values, their site will appear #1 in the rankings.
Most of the presentation covered things he talked about in his book, Delivering Happiness. At the end of the talk, Hsieh gave everyone a copy of his book. Since I’ve already read the book I’m giving away a copy of Delivering Happiness to 2 blog readers. Simply click on the comments above and send us a note (be sure to include your email address), and we’ll select 2 winners to receive a copy of the book!
Also, don’t forget about my other book giveaway from the iMedia Brand Summit.
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