If you haven’t read Tony Hsieh’s book, Delivering Happiness, I highly recommend you do. Tony is the CEO of Zappos.com and outlines how he has established a culture of service at Zappos among other leadership and management lessons.
I had the opportunity to visit Zappos recently and experienced their Zappos Premier Tour. It was an hour tour of their corporate headquarters and then a 30 minute Q&A (I actually received 50 minutes!) with one of their department leaders. It was well worth the time and cost of the flight and tour (the premier tour is $250. You can get the standard tour for free).
Tony has established 10 core values that are the foundation for everything at Zappos. It drives hiring (they screen for fit with their core values), drives training (they spend four weeks training new-hires with the first week almost entirely on the core values), drives advancement, etc. It was amazing.
If you are trying to establish a company culture that differentiates yourself in the market, I recommend you read Tony’s book and then visit Zappos in Las Vegas. It will open your eyes to what is possible and give you a vision of the power of truly living core values.
Here are Zappos 10 Core Values as outlined on their website:
Zappos Family Core Values
As we grow as a company, it has become more and more important to explicitly define the core values from which we develop our culture, our brand, and our business strategies. These are the ten core values that we live by:
- 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
Learn more about how to create company culture at www.zapposinsights.com.
Buy Tony’s book, Delivering Happiness, by clicking on the image below:
Steven Lee Elder 
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