Digital Drop Box: Review the closing case at the end of Chapter 9 titled "Zappos.com's CEO Tony Hsieh Explains How to Build a Strong Corporate Culture".
Write an essay that incorporates the answers using APA style.
Closing Case
ZAPPOS.COM'S CEO TONY HSIEH EXPLAINS HOW TO BUILD A STRONG CORPORATE CULTURE
At Zappos, our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff - like great customer service, or building a great long-term brand, or passionate employees and customers - will happen naturally on its own.
We believe that your company's culture and your company's brand are really just two sides of the same coin. The brand may lag the culture at first, but eventually it will catch up.
Your culture is your brand.
So how do you build and maintain the culture that you want?
It starts with the hiring process. At Zappos, we actually do two different sets of interviews. The hiring manager and his/her team will do the standard set of interviews looking for relevant experience, technical ability, fit within the team, etc. But then our HR [human resources] department does a separate set of interviews, looking purely for culture fit. Candidates have to pass both sets of interviews in order to be hired.
We've actually said no to a lot of very talented people that we know can make an immediate impact on our top or bottom line. But because we felt they weren't culture fits, we were willing to sacrifice the short-term benefits in order to protect our culture( and therefore the brand) for the long term.
After hiring, the next step to building the culture is training. Everyone that is hired into our headquarters goes through the same training that our Customer Loyalty Team (call center) reps go through, regardless of department of title. You might be an accountant, or a lawyer, or a software developer-you go through the exact same training program.
It's a 4-week training program, in which we go over company history, the importance of customer service, the long-term vision of the company, our philosophy about company culture-and then you're actually on the phone for 2 weeks, taking calls from customers. Again, this goes back to our belief that customer service shouldn't just be a department, it should be the entire company.At the end of the first week of training, we make an offer to the entire class. We offer everyone $2,000 to quit (in addition to paying them for the time they've already worked), and it's a standing offer until the end of the fourth week of training. We want to make sure that employees are here for more than just paycheck. We want employees that believe in our long-term vision and want to be a part of our culture. As it turns out, an average, less than 1%of people end up taking the offer.
One of the great advantages of focusing on culture is when reporters come and visit our offices. Unlike most companies, we don't give reporters a small list of people they're allowed to talk to. Instead, we encourage them to wander around and talk to whoever they want. It's our way of being as transparent as possible, which is part of our culture.
Many companies have core values, but they don't really commit to them. They usually sound more like something you'd read in a press release. Maybe you learn about them on day 1 of orientation, but after that it's just a meaningless plaque on the wall of the lobby.
We believe that it's really important to come up with core values that you can commit to. And by commit, we mean that you're willing to hire and fire based on them. If you're willing to do that, then you're well on your way to building a company culture that is in line with brand you want to build. You can let all of your employees be your brand ambassadors.
For Discussion
1: IsZappos an open system? Explain
2: Why is Zappos probably an effective "learning organization," as described in this chapter?
3: Would you call Zappos a mechanistic or organic organization? Explain
4: Would managers who want to delegate likely succeed at Zappos? Explain
5: What are the three of four most important things Zappos does to create and maintain a strong corporate culture?