Bio
Tony Hsieh ran Zappos from 1999 until 2020 and built a company widely cited for its operating-system-level commitment to customer service. Sold LinkExchange to Microsoft in 1998; sold Zappos to Amazon in 2009. Author of Delivering Happiness (2010). His enforcement mechanism for the customer-obsession value — every new hire, including the CFO and engineers, completes four weeks on the customer-loyalty phones — is the most-cited example of culture encoded in onboarding rather than slogans.
Operating themes
- Brand-is-the-product-is-the-support — the three are inseparable.
- Operating system enforces values; mission statements do not.
- Hiring rituals are leading-edge culture practice; downturns expose which orgs defend them.
Cards
- ins_zappos-rotation-through-support — Every new hire including the CFO does four weeks on the customer phones [Tier A]
Sources
- "How I Did It: Zappos's CEO on Going to Extremes for Customers," HBR 2010-07 — https://hbr.org/2010/07/how-i-did-it-zapposs-ceo-on-going-to-extremes-for-customers
- Delivering Happiness, 2010
External
- https://hbr.org/2010/07/how-i-did-it-zapposs-ceo-on-going-to-extremes-for-customers