Business book delivers more than happiness

Edward P. Salek, CAE, Executive Director | TLT Headquarters Report August 2010

If advice from an online shoe CEO fits, why not take it?
 

‘You have to want to challenge and stretch yourself in order for personal and professional growth to happen.’
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Delivering Happiness—A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose is a best-selling business book that made it to my summer reading list. The author, Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay), is CEO of Zappos.com, the online shoe and apparel retailer.

When I was presented with a copy as an advance assignment for a professional retreat, I had no idea what Zappos was, let alone why the company and its CEO are so well known—at least to other people! But Hsieh’s personal narrative and the interwoven story of Zappos’ unconventional path to financial success inspired me to comment on this exceptional book and recommend it as a worthwhile read.

The Zappos story is built around the company’s relentless pursuit of creating what they call WOW experiences for customers, vendors and employees. For example, free shipping upgrades and a 365-day, no questions asked return policy.

Zappos’ commitment to serving customers sometimes pushes beyond the exceptional to the humorous or bizarre. As a test, Hsieh once dared a business associate to make a late night call to the Zappos 24-hour customer service line and ask if the operator could help locate a place to order late night pizza. Another caller once asked a Zappos employee to answer his questions without using any pronouns. The customer service reps were successful in both cases!

According to Hsieh, it is company culture that sparks this level of employee commitment and leads to a powerful and valuable brand. Zappos’ culture has grown out of a set of 10 core values that define how the company operates internally and externally. The allegiance to these values is so strong that the company offers new hires $2,000 to quit in their first week as a way to test their commitment to these long-term goals vs. short-term financial gain.

The WOW factor also extends to investors. The company, which was founded in 1999 and grew to $1 billion in gross merchandise sales within a decade, was sold to Amazon.com in 2009 for $1.2 billion.

Although I’m not one of the lucky 100 investors who got a cut of this $1.2 billion payday, the consolation prize is the wisdom to be gained from reflecting on Zappos’ core values. My favorite is Core Value Number Five, which is to Pursue Growth and Learning. For both personal and professional reasons, it’s a message that has broad appeal and immediate impact.

While a good place to start on this goal might be by getting a copy of the book, I hope you will consider STLE as another option for professional growth. The options vary from something as simple as reading copies of TLT to the challenge of sitting for one of STLE’s four professional certification exams. As Hsieh points out, “You have to want to challenge and stretch yourself in order for it (personal and professional growth) to happen.”

STLE’s HQ staff is adopting this philosophy. Each employee has been given the assignment to read at least one business book this year, with STLE covering the cost of the book. The catch is that they have to share what they learned from the book with our extended staff of 12 people at one of our weekly staff meetings—sort of a book report for adults. The expected result is that each of us will be exposed to a dozen business books, and our capabilities and culture will be better for having participated in the experiment.

Reading Delivering Happiness convinced me that this sort of professional development exercise is a great way to counteract the negative impact of the current recession. Take a look at the book for yourself and at STLE’s suite of professional development products and opportunities. I am certain you’ll find it to be an antidote to the daily grind and a way to refresh your sense of personal and professional enthusiasm.
 

You can reach Certified Association Executive Ed Salek at esalek@stle.org.