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Zappos.com is an amazing business success story, from zero to over $1 billion in sales in less than 10 years. The company is famous for outstanding customer service and for an internal employee culture that is among the most admired.
Delivering Happiness from Zappo’s CEO Tony Hsieh is one part biography and one part business leadership/inspiration.
The first section of the book captures Tony’s career arc from childhood “worm farmer” to college pizza entrepreneur to his first large-scale business Link Exchange. If you enjoy reading biograqphies, you will find this section to be fascinating and fast-paced.
The second section of the book focuses on the Zappos.com story. As a co-founder of Upic, I’m always interested in how organizations start, grow and succeed. And with the legendary customer service reputation Zappos.com enjoys, I was especially interested in the company’s culture and philosophy. Hseih takes you step by step through the company’s development and growth, even including internal emails and first person accounts of the start-up and growth phases for the company.
Their secret is in their laser-like focus on company culture. How many companies do you know who will pay an employee $2000 to leave after the initial training period? Zappos trusts their screening/hiring/training process and their ongoing culture enough to make that bet on a daily basis. In section two, you can learn all about their core values and how that bring these to life.
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about building a world-class customer service culture that is fun and engaging.