One of the most common issues with companies that blow up is that it often comes at a price. In many cases, that involves their values. Some will defend this by saying that sacrificing a few values allows the company to grow in a healthy manner. However, one company not only showed that this isn’t needed but that holding onto values can grow a company much faster. Thus the following includes a further look into the company culture and business practices of shoe company Zappos.
The Beginning
Zappos began in 1999 during a regular stroll through the mall. Founder Nick Swinmurn was looking for a pair of shoes, but it seemed that every store had either the right size but not the right color and vise versa. In fact, even online searches did not provide him with a solution. So, thinking that many others are likely to have the same problem, Nick Swinmurn quit his day job and created Zappos.com.
Growing with Values
Founder Nick Swinmurn understood right out of the gate the importance of establishing a positive company culture. Along with a group of experts, Nick Swinmurn established ten values that the company would base its business on. Much of those values stood on the idea that working within Zappos.com should be a fun experience. Because a large part of Zappos.com consists of call centers, this was an extremely important value to include. After all, anyone who speaks with customers is a reflection of the company and having staff who genuinely cares about their jobs is key to providing professional and excellent customer service.
Teaching Company Culture Values
One of the most company mistakes that companies make is only speaking about their values and avoiding any of the work that goes towards actually implementing them into their company culture. Zappos.com takes training very seriously as it is used to teach an employee their job responsibilities and the values that hold up the company. This training program is incredibly important because for values to be known and practiced, every employee of the company must hear the same message.
Today, Zappos.com is one of the biggest shoe companies in the world and works closely with e-commerce titan Amazon to ship out its products. However, that would not have been possible without the incredible value system implemented early on by Founder Nick Swinmurn and many others on his team.