I just finished “Delivering Happiness – A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose”  by Tony Hsieh.  I so enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it to anyone – entrepreneur or otherwise.  Tony does a great job of laying out the path that he and the Zappos founders followed, or zig-zagged through, to get where the company is now.

His focus on the company’s core values, and how Zappos implements those core values to preserve the company culture was excellent.

Zappo’s Core Values:

1.  Deliver WOW Through Service

2. Embrace and Drive Change

3. Create Fun and a Little Weirdness

4. Be Adventurous, Creative and Open-Minded

5. Pursue Growth and Learning

6.  Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication

7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit

8. Do More with Less

9.  Be Passionate and Determined

10.  Be Humble.

He talks in the book about how Zappos hires people who can fit into the culture, not necessarily the people who will impact the top or bottom line the most.  Their recruiting techniques are unique – including “speed dating,” events to weed through a large number of candidates before moving into formal interviews, and a “Saturday Night Live” skit during new hire orientation.

That focus on “delivering happiness” has now spread, and through speaking engagements, the Zappos Insights Live site, blogs and Twitter, the company has now launched into what Hsieh says is a much bigger movement….”helping to change the world.”   Zappos was acquired by Amazon in an effort to realign the board of directors with Hsieh and the rest of the company leadership.  The company is still run as an independent entity while having access to Amazon’s resources.

Altogether – a great read and food for thought for anyone running a business – or a life!

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