The Importance of Values—taught to us by Zappos and Hsieh
The benefits of a strong, values-led company culture are best illustrated by the online shoe retailer Zappos.
It was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn and Tony Hsieh, and acquired by Amazon in 2009 for a reported $1.2 billion.
As CEO, Hsieh was the driver of Zappo’s extraordinary company culture. The company became the poster child for building a valued-driven business.
Zappo’s core values and the foundation of their extraordinary culture are published on the company website:
Our 10 Core Values
- 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
These values are not just filling whitespace on the website’s About page — they are lived in every decision management and employees make every day.
Because Zappos aspires to deliver incredible service, it adopts a customer-centric strategy.
Call center employees don’t have sales scripts, and there are no limits on the duration of customer support calls — as evidenced by the record-breaking longest customer service call on April 4, 2017, by Stephanie V., who was on the phone with a customer for 10 hours and 51 minutes.
Zappos employees are not instructed to follow the rules. They are encouraged to live their values and do the right thing.
