What I Learned about Marketing, Management, and Leadership from Zappos The year of 1999, and Zappos’ founder Nick Swinmurn was walking around a mall in San Francisco looking for a pair of shoes. One store had the right style, but not the right color. Another store had the right color, but not the right size. Swinmurn spent the next hour in the mall, walking from store to store, and finally went home empty-handed and frustrated (Zappos, 2015). Swinmurn tried looking for shoes online and was again unsuccessful. Although there were a lot of "mom and pop" stores selling shoes online, what was interesting to Swinmurn was that there was no major online retailer that specialized in shoes. So, since it was 1999 and anything seemed possible
…show more content…
Since then, he’s helped boost sales to over $1 billion a year and played a significant role in Amazon’s acquisition of the company in 2009. Instead of letting company news slowly trickle down to the ranks in typical corporate fashion, Hsieh is known for communicating with all employees directly via personalized email updates, all-hands meetings, and informal team gatherings, making sure that significant company news comes straight from the top. Hsieh also takes time to really listen to his employees. As a result, Zappos employees feel comfortable voicing their opinions and openly discussing their ideas with managers, executives, and their co-workers (Fayer, 2015). During the early mode of Zappos, two key components converged that set the stage for success: a culture for passion and unity, and the focus on customer service. Zappos’ competitive advantage is wrapped into 3 key areas – customer service, word of mouth, and culture building. Hsieh believed that the Zappos brand would happen on its own when these 3 elements aligned (Antonelli, …show more content…
Zappos goal is to have happy employees and happy customers. Tony Hsieh, himself studied a lot about what make people happy. Hsieh says it all comes down to four key attributers. The number one attributer is to make sure not to make people feel like they’ve lost control. Another contributor is perceived progress, which with to help make feel people that they are making process. The third element is having strong social ties, connectedness. Lastly, being a part of something bigger than yourself which is basically finding a vision and meaning (Bulygo,
Since then, he’s helped boost sales to over $1 billion a year and played a significant role in Amazon’s acquisition of the company in 2009. Instead of letting company news slowly trickle down to the ranks in typical corporate fashion, Hsieh is known for communicating with all employees directly via personalized email updates, all-hands meetings, and informal team gatherings, making sure that significant company news comes straight from the top. Hsieh also takes time to really listen to his employees. As a result, Zappos employees feel comfortable voicing their opinions and openly discussing their ideas with managers, executives, and their co-workers (Fayer, 2015). During the early mode of Zappos, two key components converged that set the stage for success: a culture for passion and unity, and the focus on customer service. Zappos’ competitive advantage is wrapped into 3 key areas – customer service, word of mouth, and culture building. Hsieh believed that the Zappos brand would happen on its own when these 3 elements aligned (Antonelli, …show more content…
Zappos goal is to have happy employees and happy customers. Tony Hsieh, himself studied a lot about what make people happy. Hsieh says it all comes down to four key attributers. The number one attributer is to make sure not to make people feel like they’ve lost control. Another contributor is perceived progress, which with to help make feel people that they are making process. The third element is having strong social ties, connectedness. Lastly, being a part of something bigger than yourself which is basically finding a vision and meaning (Bulygo,