On Company Culture: Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
My boss, Mssr. M. Graham Mothner, threw Delivering Happiness on my desk today with a "you've gotta read this" look on his face. Luckily, I'm a slow reader and I'm already reading two other books right now, so I'll probably be done with it around November... of 2012.
Seriously, though, Zappos is one of those companies that--love them of hate them--is good at what they do. The more that I find out about them, the more impressed I am. So, for those of you who might not get to the book, here is a video of Zappos' CEO, Tony Hsieh, discussing his take on company culture and its importance to the success of a company.
I found this to be the most inspiring line from the video:
We're willing to hire and fire people based on whether they're living up to [Zappos' core values], independent of job performance.
Just about every company claims to put the good of the whole over the needs of the few but I think we all know that exceptions are always made for the "high value" or "high maintenance" employees:
"Yeah, John sure can be a jerk but he's our top salesman, so what can you do?"
"Sure, Jane is nightmare to work with but nobody on the team can program like she can."
It's good to know that one company that has been wildly successful has managed to achieve its success without compromising their core values. [Fora.tv]
