Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh

First off, a disclaimer for full disclosure: This book landed on the doorsteps at the GetUp! offices unbidden and a gift. I tweet and blog about things Zappos has said and about the things they do that I think are great, but I think the fact this advance reading copy (so before the book is released for publication) showed up on our doorstep as an unexpected, and can I say, really appreciated gift says something about a company that sticks to its principles.

It’s funny, because Tony talks a lot in his book about how things like happiness, culture, customer satisfaction and brand and pipeline converge to make Zappos be as awesome as everyone thinks it is, but I think it’s something more fundamentally basic than all this in human nature. Quite honestly, I was having an awful day before the package showed up at work, and I’d actually thought someone else had managed to buy a copy before I’d got one. Nope, it was a gift… and while I may be kidding myself in thinking it was sent specifically for me (could also have come for our awesome former Director of Strategy, the mighty Tim!), the thought that it was sent specifically for me, or even to the organization I work for because of what it does, made me feel special. And that’s the real magic of Zappos: Making people feel special. Because that, my friends, no one can put a price on.

So, just to say even before I received the book, I’ve been a huge fan of how Zappos runs their shop and the pillars they’ve set their business on. And apparently Amazon is to if they’re willing to pay $1.2 Billion for what is, if you strip away all its greatness, an online shoe company. That now all said…

Anyone who reads anything about how businesses can be better run has heard of Zappos. While it seemed to come out of nowhere in the business press all of a sudden with clear, strong and compelling ideas about company culture, customer service and employee treatment, fact is they’ve been around for a while.

And this is the CEO’s story.

And I have to admit, I really liked it. He didn’t have it ghost written which makes it come across with an honesty and freshness (if not attention to grammar… ) which is lacking in a lot of business books these days, particularly those ghost written by people taking direction from someone higher up. I guess his passion comes across, which is… well, rare in a business book. It feels honest, and open and easy to read. More than that, it shares both the good and bad things that happened (ie. outsourcing to eLogistics for one) and things that were difficult (layoffs in the wake of the financial crisis).

One thing I didn’t know was that Tony started off as a founder of LinkExchange, which was sold off to Microsoft for an ungodly sum in the heady days of the dot com bubble. It was an interesting, simple business but what I really liked about it, and the story about how Tony ended up venture funding and then moving in to help run Zappos was how often things in it were the result of following passion, grit and sticking with things and a fundamental belief in what they were doing (which admittedly in other people could be called obsession… perhaps that’s the difference, whether you are successful or not.). I do admire Hsieh for sticking with something he believed in whenever the chips were down and to the point of being personally invested in it and selling off assets to keep it going.

The best thing about the book though, is how he tells you how this happens. They didn’t stumble on their formula right away and it was more about learning as they went along, iterating, and when they learned something new, re-gearing the company to have that as a focus. It is interesting how Tony stumbled across truisms that seem to be now gospel in books such as Tribal Leadership and Daniel Pink’s Drive (which I finished just before this book and which you should go read right now).

Basically, though Zappos lives what it says. It’s mission and cultural values have been carefully baked into the DNA of the company and so when they talk about Zappos’ core values it’s not just lip service (like so many other places who stick a mission statement on the wall). My favourite thing though, are Zappos cultural values and the fact they really do seem to live them (unlike a lot of other companies with empty mission statements and “goals” or “values and competencies buried in some dusty Word doc or backwater on the intranet) :

Deliver WOW through service
Embrace and Drive Change
Create fun and a Little Weirdness
Be Adventurous, Creative and Open-Minded
Pursue Growth and Learning
Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication
Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
Do More with Less
Be Passionate and Determined
Be Humble

And if you don’t believe that makes a difference in how your company operates if you embrace it, you should seriously take a look at pg. 168 and the “Timmy” dialogue. If you don’t want your company to be that good, well then you can stop reading this review (and my blog) right now.

For individuals, character is destiny

For companies, culture is destiny.

It is interesting what Tony sees as what has really separated Zaapos from the competition (though the media likes to focus on things like the fact Zappos will pay you $2000 to walk away from the job after your first week of training if it’s not for you… though I have to admit, I do wonder how Zappos deals with people who join but then don’t fit in later. Something interesting, since it’s the toughest thing for both bosses and a company to deal with. Or honest differences of opinion which mean strategic directions are honest differences of opinion but honestly irreconcilable).

Tony believe Zappos is uniquely different and successful because of three things: Brand, Culture and Pipeline.

In fact, he believes they are the only long term differentiators of any company. Any other strategic or tactical advantage becomes fundamentally copyable over time. Brand and Culture, despite Zappos’ particular angle I think anyone knows about, but the idea of the Pipeline, a constantly moving conveyor belt of people with a person ahead and behind you for any particular job is really interesting. A lot of companies talk about succession management, but it’s more an issue for the executive team than a company wide phenomenon. And I like the way that training and learning is baked into that concept and openly encouraged from the internal courses on offer that are part of your pay rises and promotion to the Zappos library that allows you to tick off the books you’ve read in a sort of friendly competition.

Overall, I think it’s a really good read and gives anyone who is concerned about their own organization or running one one day food for thought. You should definitely read it if either of those two things describes you.