Zappos is an international online company located in Las Vegas that deals with the sale of clothes and shoes. Having been founded in 1999, the company has managed to gain an international reputation for quality products, thus seeking admiration from other online shops and companies.
The two main founders of Zappos were Nick Swinmurn and Tony Hsieh, who first gave the company the name ‘Zapatos’ which later changed to Zappos. The main reason behind the success of Zappos is its unorthodox culture, which has gained admiration globally. This paper is, therefore, an in-depth analysis of the Zappos culture by looking at its origin, employee implementation, and maintenance of the culture.
As the company CEO, Tony Hsieh puts it, “if you get the organizational culture right – then everything else that you need to be successful will fall into place” (Riley, par. 2). Despite its current success, the origin of the Zappos culture has had many downhill moments. The company initially began with only 20 employees and could not get any more because they had exhausted all their friends.
During this time, the company was, however, focused on the skills and experiences of the employees they hired. In fact, by the time the company had about 100 employees, it realized that not all of them could fit into its organizational culture. Hence, this created the need to train and educate the employees on the Zappos culture.
The culture of Zappos is one of its kinds given the customer base that it has since its foundation. By the year 2008, the company had over 100 million customers who made its sales shoot up to $1 billion. According to the company’s CEO, Zappos culture revolves around its customers and employees whom it regards highly.
He goes on to say that “at Zappos, our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff—like great customer service, or, building a great long-term brand, or passionate employees and customers—will happen naturally on its own” (Riley par. 5). The Zappos culture is actually their brand, which they have managed to sell over the years.
The employees play a significant role in organizational culture, hence the need to teach them. Zappos has been keen on educating its employees because they are the key players of the culture. For instance, upon employment of an individual, the employees are inducted and taken into a four weeks training in the culture of the organization.
During the training, the employees get to know who Zappos is, what they do, and how they operate. After the training, it is with no doubt that, the employees become part of the culture. As such, they become responsible for the Zappos culture and are accountable to it. This is different from other organizations where only the top management is responsible and accountable for organizational culture.
Zappos has really had an easy time maintaining its organizational culture. Other than just motivating employees, the company has gone deeper to make sure that the employees are not only motivated but also inspired.
According to the Zappos CEO, inspiration goes deeper to make employees have a greater purpose and have values that are geared into the improvement of organizational culture. In addition to this, the company has invested greatly in customer service instead of marketing and advertising strategies. Unlike advertising and product marketing, customer service effectively achieves customer satisfaction.
Works Cited
Riley Jim. Organizational Culture: Tony Hsieh on Zappos, Core Values, Culture and Organizational Structure. 2014. Web.