Management system at Zappos. Zappos is a company obsessed with customer service.

From the book by T. Shay. “Bringing happiness. Zero to Billion: A First-hand Story of a Great Company »

Key values

Back in San Francisco, Nick, Fred, and I made sure to meet with each potential employee of the company to make sure that they fit into the Zappos corporate culture. After moving to Las Vegas, due to the rapid growth of the business, we began to recruit people very quickly. At a certain point, we lost the ability to make a decision on each candidate, and since we had a lot of new employees, the problem arose that not everyone knew exactly what we wanted when we talked about the need to fit our corporate culture.

One of the company's lawyers suggested that we compile a list of core values ​​as a guide for managers involved in hiring employees, and I began to write down the qualities that we would like to see in people. I imagined all the colleagues that I wanted to clone because they embodied the Zappos culture, and I tried to determine what values ​​they embodied. I also introduced all the staff and former employees who did not fit into our corporate culture and tried to figure out what values ​​they lacked.

As I started compiling my list, I realized that I needed to get the opinion of everyone else at Zappos about it, just like we did when we put together a book on corporate culture, asking everyone what they think about it.

The original list consisted of thirty-seven values.

1. Culture is everything.
2. "Wow!" - service.
3. Trust and faith.
4. Idealism.
5. Company growth.
6. Long term perspective.
7. Personal growth.
8. Achieve the impossible.
9. Team.
10. Family/relationships.
11. Emotional connections.
12. Development of willpower.
13. Authority.
14. Feeling of ownership.
15. Initiative.
16. Desire to do whatever is required.
17. No fear of making a mistake.
18. Open-bordered.
19. Bottom up (and top down).
20. Partnership.
21. Ability to listen.
22. Super communications.
23. Operational excellence.
24. Willingness to change.
25. Continuous incremental improvement.
26. The ability to do more with less.
27. Innovation.
28. Word of mouth.
29. Luck.
30. Enthusiasm and positive.
31. Personality.
32. Openness and honesty.
33. Fun.
34. Inspiration.
35. Unusual.
36. The ability to laugh at yourself.

37. Calm confidence and respect.

The list got long, and we started thinking about which items were the most important and best conveyed who we wanted to be. We also discussed which of the above can be combined.

Over the course of the year, I sent this list to everyone in the company several times, and received a lot of feedback and suggestions as to which core values ​​they felt were most important.

It was surprising that the process took so long, but we did not want to speed it up, because no matter how this list turned out, we wanted it to include only what we could truly accept.

The most difficult was the question of conformity. Many corporations have "core values" or "guiding principles", but the problem is that they usually sound very pompous and look like a quote from a press release issued by the marketing department. In many cases, an employee is introduced to them on the first day of work, and after that they remain just meaningless manifestos on the walls of offices.

We wanted to make sure that this doesn't happen to our core values. We needed a list that everyone could agree on, which meant that we had to hire and fire people based on it, regardless of their performance.

If we could not do this, these "values" would be false.

In the end, a definitive list of ten key values ​​was formed, which we use to this day.

1. To evoke a "wow!"-feeling by our service.

2. Accept and encourage change.

3. Create a fun and slightly unusual atmosphere.

4. Love adventure, think creatively and think outside the box.

5. Welcome growth and learning.

6. Build open and honest relationships through the exchange of information.

7. Create a positive team spirit and family environment.

8. Do more with less.

9. Be passionate and determined.

10. Be humble.

Initially, some employees suggested that honesty be included in the list of values, but I deliberately crossed out this item. I felt that honesty would translate for us to truly stick to our core values ​​in everything, and not just refer to them when it's beneficial.

Over time, the recruiting department developed an interview questionnaire with candidates that addressed all the core values ​​​​of the company so that at the hiring stage we could check the readiness to live up to them.

At the same time, “being modest” is perhaps the most important thing: it is this quality that greatly influences the final decision on the fate of a candidate. There are a lot of experienced, smart, talented people, talking with whom, you understand that they can immediately increase the company's revenue or profit. But often at the same time they are real egoists, and we refuse them. In most companies, the recruiting manager would probably be in favor of hiring such a person, because he will create a lot of additional value for the company. That's why the majority large companies there is no decent corporate culture.

At Zappos, we have a philosophy that we are willing to sacrifice short-term gains (such as losing revenue or profits) if we believe that in long term such a sacrifice is justified. Protecting the corporate culture and adherence to core values ​​brings long-term benefits.

When we had a final list of ten core values, I sent an email to everyone in the company, describing each of them in more detail. We still refer to that letter. In fact, coming to the company, new employee confirms in writing that he has read the document on the key values ​​of the company and understands that living in accordance with them is what the employer expects from him.

ZAPPOS Core Values ​​Document

ZAPPOS Mission: To live with the “wow!” feeling and deliver it to customers. As we grow as a company, it becomes increasingly important to unambiguously define the core values ​​of Zappos, on the basis of which we develop our corporate culture, brand and business strategy.

The company is growing, with more and more new hires coming in, so we need to make sure they are all like-minded people, acting in accordance with our vision of what Zappos should be. Gradually, we will build employee performance assessments to be based largely on the alignment of their decisions with Zappos' core values. Although there are many aspects to these core values, we have identified the most important for us in the form of ten points.

Ideally, we want all ten core values ​​to be reflected in everything we do, including our interactions with each other, with customers, with suppliers and business partners.

Ahead of us is waiting big job, and it will be some time before these ten values ​​really show up in the way we think, act, and communicate.

Procedures and strategy may change as we grow, but we would like the values ​​to remain the same. They should always be the framework that guides all our decisions. Since this is the first time we've published the list of key values, it may be subject to changes and additions over the next year, but we strive to finally decide on the final version, which will serve as the basis for the management of the company and its development.

I encourage everyone to review everything that has already been done and ask themselves what can be changed to better align with our core values. For example, our employee handbook should be redesigned to be more Zappos and less like a similar document that you might see in any other company. Our internal forms, job applications, templates Email, part corporate site, and more could be improved to feel more Zappos and better reflect our core values.

So we challenge everyone to make at least one improvement every week that better aligns with Zappos' core values. These improvements don't have to be drastic; for example, you can just add a sentence or two to the form to make it look more fun. But if every employee makes just one small improvement per week that better aligns with our core values, by the end of the year we'll have more than fifty thousand small changes, collectively representing a radical change from where we are today.

Below are short descriptions of each of the core values.

To evoke a “wow!” feeling with our service

At Zappos, everything worth doing is worth doing with a “wow!” feeling.

"Wow!" such a short, simple word, but in reality it contains so much. To evoke a “wow!” feeling, you must differentiate, which means doing things in an unconventional and innovative way. You must do something beyond what is expected. And everything you do should have an emotional impact on the buyer. We are not an average company, our service is not average, and we don't want our people to be average.

We expect every employee to be involved in delivering the “wow!” feeling. Whether you're interacting with colleagues or customers and partners, delivering that "wow!" feeling leads to word of mouth for the company. Our philosophy is to give Zappos customers a “wow!” feeling from the quality of service and any contact with the company, and not just as a result of receiving monetary benefits (for example, we do not offer discounts on all products or other benefits to our customers) .

We strive to create a “wow!” feeling in consumers, employees, suppliers, partners and, in the long run, investors.

Ask yourself: what can you improve in your work or behavior in order to create a “wow!” feeling in more people? Did you evoke a “wow!” feeling in at least one person today?

Create a "wow" feeling with our service (added by Martha S.)

In 1984, I traveled around Europe for several weeks. By the time I got to London (it was the last stop before returning to the States), I had run out of money except for one "lucky" dollar and a handful of foreign coins at the bottom of my purse.

I was thirsty, and after reading the sign "Accept foreign money", I grabbed a can of soda from the diner counter. By the time it was my turn to pay, I drank the water almost to the bottom, and then I suddenly noticed another inscription “We do not accept foreign coins, only banknotes.” Trying to convince the cashier to take all the coins I had was futile, but the last thing I wanted was to part with the "lucky" dollar.

Suddenly, a gentleman standing behind me stepped up to the cashier and paid for my water.

I thanked him and tried to hand him all my change, but he refused to accept it. He asked me only one thing: to give good things just like that. I will always remember this chance meeting with a stranger at the London airport.

We turn on fast forward and find ourselves in our time: now 2008, Tuesday, morning, Walgreens supermarket. I just filled my shopping cart with a long list of groceries and went to the checkout. Behind me in line were a couple, they had only a few items in their hands, so naturally I let them go first.

It was my turn, the cashier had scanned about a third of the items in my basket, when an elderly gentleman got in line. In his hands were two cans of nuts, balm and some kind of medicine.

I turned to him and asked him to give me his purchases. With a surprised expression on his face, he asked why I needed them. I wanted to say: “I give goodness just like that,” but instead the words flew out: “I give “wow!” just". Since I work at Zappos, the word "wow" has replaced "good" by itself. Instead of correcting the mistake, I repeated it again. The cashier scanned the elderly gentleman's purchases, put them in a bag and handed them to him.

He looked at me and asked: “Tell me, what is“ giving “wow!” just"?".He listened to my story about the London stranger, thanked him warmly, and left theshop. Now it was the cashier's turn to look at me blankly. He also wantedlearn about “wow!” just like that,” and I explained that I work at Zappos, and one of the keyThe company's value is to deliver a "wow!"-feeling to our customers.

I left the store with an incredible feeling. Not only did I share the “wow!” feeling, I shared it with two people and hoped that someday they would share it with someone else. A few days later, on my way home from a night shift at Zappos, I stopped at the same Walgreens at 7:00 am. As soon as I opened the door, I heard: “Hi, Martha!”.

It was the same cashier as last time. Surprised, I said, "I can't believe you remember my name." He replied, "Your name was on the check and I wrote it down because I didn't want to forget the person who taught me to 'give 'wow!' feeling and kindness just for the hell of it." I have told others about it!” The funny thing is that now he gave me a “wow!” feeling.

Accept and encourage change

Being a growing company in some way means constantly changing. Some people, especially those who come from more large organizations, constant changes can be uncomfortable at first. If you are not ready for change, you may not be the right fit for our company. We all need to not only not be afraid of change, but to embrace it with enthusiasm and, perhaps more importantly, to encourage and implement it. We must constantly plan for change and be ready for it. While change can and will happen in all directions, it is essential that most of it comes from below, by people on the front lines, by people who are closest to clients and their concerns. Never accept or put up with the status quo, because historically it is those companies that have been in trouble that cannot quickly respond to changes and adapt to them. We are on the move all the time. If we want to continue to be ahead of the competition, we must constantly change by asking them riddles. They can copy our image, our shipping system and appearance our site, but fail to copy our people, culture and service quality. And they are not able to move as fast as we can, because encouraging constant change has become part of our corporate culture. Ask yourself: how do you plan and prepare for change? Are you optimistic about new challenges? Do you encourage and strive for change? How do you encourage more change to come from the initiative of subordinates? Are you authorized by your line manager to make the necessary changes?

The Power of the One Percent, blog post by Alfred Lin, financial and executive director companies, January 2009

It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. Charles Dickens, A Story of Two Cities»

In CNBC Reports-2008, Maria Bartiromo quoted Charles Dickens, noting that although the writer was referring to the French Revolution, he could easily have said these words about the events of 2008. Without a doubt, 2008 was a very difficult year, starting with a recession in the economy and retail, and in the first half of the year, the indicators slowly declined, and in the second they simply collapsed, as if into an abyss. According to information from different sources, during that holiday season, online commerce fell by three to five percent, that is, the industry did not show growth for the first time. Reading these not-too-positive reports only highlights how lucky we are at Zappos, because we were able to get through this tough time and achieve absolutely incredible results. No, not everything was perfect, but 2008 was a great year for us! Official results will have to wait until our financiers balance and issue an audited financial statements, but I can say that last year, including the holiday season (when e-commerce slows down), we managed to grow our business, and our sales turnover exceeded one billion dollars. And guided by the principle of "Doing more with less", we remained profitable and maintained a positive cash flow and had a lot of fun serving our customers!

You can remember 2008, but now it's 2009, we're back from a long-awaited vacation, and it's time to continue playing. We will take on the goals and fulfill the “official” plans as soon as the board of directors approves them, but even before this “official” approval, we know what we need to do.

We encourage you to re-read the Zappos Core Values ​​document and make at least one change every week that will help Zappos get better. Ideally, every day. This may sound intimidating, but remember that improvements don't have to be drastic. Think about what it means to improve something by one percent every day, taking into account previous improvements. As a result, the changes will be radical, and by the end of the year we will be 37 times better, and not 365 percent (3.65 times better).

Every day when you wake up, think not only about how you can improve Zappos by one percent today, but also about how you can improve yourself personally and professionally by the same percentage. After all, Zappos can't grow without us, its employees, growing.

Imagine a one percent change for the better every day stacked up, resulting in both you and Zappos being 37x better by the end of the year. Imagine every Zappos employee doing the same. Imagine how much better you, Zappos, and the world will be next year.

It won't be easy, and 2009 will no doubt present its challenges, but we'll definitely get through them. Have a wonderful and happy 2009!

P.S. Note for those concerned with mathematics. If at the beginning of the year you have one hundred dollars and every day the total amount you have increases by one percent, at the end of the year you will have 3778.34 dollars = 100 (2/x1) (1 + 1%) ^ 365 That is, 37.78 times more than the amount you had at the beginning of the year. That's what just one percent a day means!

P P.S. Yes, I am obsessed with math. Yes, I was not cool enough to play football, so I participated in mathematical olympiads.

Thanks for supporting me ☺

Create a fun and slightly unusual atmosphere

One of the things that sets Zappos apart from many other companies is that we value fun and quirkiness. We don't want to be one of those boring big corporations. We want to keep the ability to laugh at ourselves. We treat our daily work with joy and humor.

This means that a lot of what we do can seem somewhat uncomfortable, if not strange. But at the same time, we do not encourage follies or too serious deviations. To make life more interesting and fun, we just need a little unusual atmosphere. We want the company to have a unique and memorable character.

Corporate culture is what makes us successful, and our culture isunderstands that we welcome diversity and value individuality. we want tothis individuality manifested itself in the work. To an outside observer, it may seemthat such a position leads to inconsistency. But we are consistent in our faiththat we work better if we can be ourselves. We want unusualThe quality of each of us was manifested both in communication between people and in their work. One of

A side effect of encouraging the out-of-the-box is that it encourages employees to think outside the box and be innovative. When you combine some quirkiness with the assurance that everyone enjoys the job, it becomes a win-win for everyone: employees are more interested in their duties, and the company as a whole becomes more innovative. Ask yourself: How can we express our uniqueness and differentiate ourselves from others? What can we do that is funny and weird at the same time? How happy are you with your work and how can you make it even more enjoyable? What do you do to make the work of your colleagues as joyful?

Office bed! Blog entry by Brett H., April 1, 2009

We at Zappos are always looking for ways to do more with less, this is one of our core values ​​and we believe that privacy is very important. Therefore, we came up with new way accommodate more people in our office in Las Vegas, Nevada - office beds. In fact, our CEO Tony Shay came up with this idea when he was thinking about how to solve the issue with office space. We grew very quickly, and in such a situation it is easy to fill the entire space, and this happens before the problem can be realized. He commissioned this innovative piece of furniture from Warren and Associate Builders here in Henderson to maximize available office space. Seeing finished sample, Tony said seriously that he would ask to be moved to the top bunk in his office. After hearing about Tony's new toy, Zappos CFO/COO Alfred Lin ordered another workspace with a bed upstairs so he could pass out if he stayed up late at the office.

Tony plans to mass-produce Zappos office beds to offload office rooms around the world.

Comments are welcome: what do you think of this?

Adventurous, creative and out-of-the-box thinking

We at Zappos think that people and the company as a whole need to be bold and bold (but not reckless). We want no one to be afraid to take risks and make mistakes, because if people don't make mistakes, it means they don't take enough risks. We want everyone to strive to make business decisions. We want everyone to develop and improve their decision-making skills. We encourage people to make mistakes if they learn from them.

We do not accept complacency and acceptance of the status quo just because "we have always done it." You should always seek adventure and find joy in exploring new possibilities. Having the freedom to make decisions, we ourselves are the creators of our own happiness. We do not accept templates when analyzing complex situations.

Sometimes the love of adventure and creativity leads us to make unconventional decisions (because we have the freedom to think outside the box), but this is what allows us to leave the competition behind.

Ask yourself: Are you risking enough? are you afraid to make mistakes? Are you ready to give up your usual comfort? does your job require creativity, is it like an adventure? Are there any creative things you can bring to Zappos activities? How unconventional do you approach the analysis of complex situations?

Adventurous, creative and out-of-the-box by Krista Foley (HR)

When I joined Zappos in December 2004, I had eight years behind me. professional career in recruitment at two very large recruitment agencies. This world is ruled by Complacency and the Status Quo, and Adventure and Joy have long been banished from the realm, if they ever were its subjects at all. I slowly drifted towards the final flash, and then I decided that I would never want to interview candidates again. If you noticed the title of my position and thought, "Hmm, this is somehow ... strange," don't worry, this story has a happy ending.

I saw that Zappos.com had an opening for a Chief Human Resources Specialist. This was exactly the company everyone was talking about - a new, hippy, cool, cool company that had just moved to our city from San Francisco. And although the place was definitely interesting and attractive, I was seriously considering quitting recruiting.

But the stars aligned so that I got this job! At the start of my second week at Zappos, my supervisor approached me confidently and informed me that, given my experience, my first big project there will be - drum roll - yeah, help in organizing the recruitment process and actually in the search for candidates. Alas…

You must have guessed that at first I was not encouraged by this, but here I quickly realized that my problem with recruiting was not related to the recruiting function itself, but to the lack of creativity and adventurous spirit in the work, which is, as they say, slow was killing me.

And at Zappos, as with other core values, “adventurous, creative, and out-of-the-box thinking” isn’t just a recommendation—it’s a way to live. And if you think you can't apply this or any other value to the traditionally clunky, over-regulated, and boring departments (in fact, HR probably tops the list) in your company, think better.

When we were working on creating the recruiting process, we were trying to figure out not only how to measure whether candidates shared our core values, but also how we were going to demonstrate – engage – those values ​​in the recruiting process.

We are talking about the need to think creatively and unconventionally and be able to take risks!

For example, one of the biggest challenges that comes to mind was recruiting a very large number of people into a customer loyalty team in a very short time. Then there were only three of us, and we simply physically could not conduct interviews so quickly. Tony came up with one of those crazy ideas that are typical of him: he proposed instead of the traditional "job fair", where you can recruit a lot of people, to hold something like a "speed dating".

My first reaction was "hell no, this will never work, but it will take a month to properly prepare and conduct." But in the spirit of honesty and commitment to thinking outside the box, without having best plan we decided to try this one. We started with the simplest of placing an ad in the newspapers, candidates came in, listened to a presentation about Zappos and information about future work, and then met with six employees of the company, talking with each for five minutes. We wanted to quickly weed out those who definitely did not fit, and conduct traditional interviews with the rest.

It wasn't perfect, but it was only the beginning. What followed was an inspired and challenging job of fine-tuning the process, making it more efficient, and tweaking it “Zappos-style.” A year later, dance music sounded at the presentation, drinks and snacks appeared. We have increased the interactive component, surprising those present with a mixture of informative and comedic numbers. People introduced themselves to the group and shared funny anecdotes (not a bad way to see which one of them is a potential group leader), and there were also Oprah-style moments with prizes (with Zappos symbols) being awarded to “lucky team members”. We added an old-fashioned kitchen timer to the interview/dating environment, and when five minutes passed and candidates had to move to the next interviewer, we gave them the “ji-i-i-i-yin” signal and shouted in unison: “Change!”.

The energy and enthusiasm of the growing recruiting team on how to make the work better, more fun, more efficient, and more reflective of the Zappos corporate culture was overwhelming. They quickly spread to everything we do and took the form of things like themed interview rooms where it was easier for candidates to relax, answer questions more sincerely, show personality and showcase their creativity.

This even showed up in the introductory course for beginners. One of the blocks paperwork, which we had to do, concerned the expectations from the training; in essence, it is a list of reasons why a person could be fired during the four weeks of the course. They are spoken about on the first day. Yes, this is important information, and it needs to be conveyed to employees, but how to do it “Zappos style”? Thanks to two regular viewers of Saturday Night at live» we decided to borrow from this program several well-known and beloved characters and came up with parodies that conveyed necessary information, but upside down and funny.

I could give many more examples, but suffice it to say that today, five years later, when I look at my team and what we have done at Zappos, I feel great pride and satisfaction in our work. When someone feels “burned out”, bored, no longer enjoys difficult tasks, or “suffocated” by routine, it’s not the work itself, but the atmosphere and rules of the game that accompany it.

Let your employees take risks and try new things. Some will work, some won't, but that's okay. Let the person put his whole self into the work. It may turn out that an amazingly talented programmer is also a rock musician, so give him the opportunity to open up in this at work.

I think when people say they hate work, it's because at home they are in harmony with themselves. Why not see what happens if you give your employees the opportunity to show their full talent and reward them not for what they do like others, but for going beyond the possible, creating and trying new things?

So you see now that everything can have a happy ending? I'm still recruiting, I'm interviewing people every day, and I'm perfectly happy doing it!

Examples of questions asked at ZAPPOS during an interview

Candidate tends to think and act out of the box

Give an example of a situation at a previous job where you had to think and act outside the box.

What's the best mistake you've made at work? Why is she the best?

— Tell us about a time when you encountered a problem that needed to be solved or an area that needed improvement that was outside your area of ​​responsibility, and dealt with it yourself, without asking from outside. What was it, how did you do it?

Candidate has above average creativity

- Would you say that your creativity is higher or lower than the average person? Can you give an example to support this?

If you were given the task of making the recruiting/interviewing process more fun on your first day at Zappos, what would you do in those eight hours?

Candidate is willing to take risks in an attempt to solve a problem

Give an example of when you took a risk at your previous job. What were the results?

- When last time did you break the rules/policy to do your job?

Welcome growth and learning

At Zappos, we believe it's important for employees to grow both personally and professionally. It is important to constantly change, you cannot put up with a job in which you do not feel that you are growing or learning something.

We believe that every employee has a much higher potential than he thinks. Our goal is to help unlock that potential. But this is only possible through joint efforts: in order to reach your potential, you must be willing to challenge yourself and change.

If you've been with Zappos for more than a few months, one thing is clear: Zappos is growing. We grow because we accept the challenges that arise, and as we grow, these challenges become more and more. Yes, it's a vicious circle, but it's good: it's the only way the company can survive. True, at times there is stress, a sense of excessive risk and misunderstanding.

Sometimes it may seem that new problems arise as old ones are solved (sometimes even faster!), but this only means that we are moving, that we are becoming better and stronger. Anyone who wants to compete with us will have to face the same things, so problems are just milestones. Each of them means that we have become better.

And no matter how good we are already, we will always have a lot of hard work to do, we will never redo it all, and we will never do anything "once and for all."

The previous phrase may seem pessimistic, but it is not: we will do our best to do something "once and for all", but then we will return to it again when we find out that the world has changed. This is the cycle of growth, and whether we like it or not, this cycle is endless.

It's hard... But if we didn't take on the hard stuff, we wouldn't have a business.

The only reason we haven't been swallowed by the competition yet is because we solve tough problems, and we do it better than anyone else. If it gets easy, start watching the tide - the wave of competition will sweep us away.

Sometimes it may seem that we ourselves do not know what we are doing. And it's true: we don't know.

It's a little scary, but it can make you feel better if you know that no one else knows it either. And if someone knew, then the most popular online shoe store would be his store. Of course, in part, people repeated what we did before, but over the years of work at Zappos, we realized that the devil is in the details. And just here we are talking about a new word.

So there are no experts in what we do. Except us: we become experts as we do it. And the best thing is that everyone we invite on board can bring to the company is the ability to learn, change and create something new, thereby helping the company to grow and, as it grows, to grow itself.

Ask yourself: how do you grow as a person? how do you grow professionally? Are you better today than you were yesterday? How do your colleagues and subordinates grow as a result of you? How do your colleagues and subordinates grow professionally thanks to you? what problems are you facing? do you learn something new every day? do you have a vision of where you want to go? how do you contribute to the growth of the company as a whole? Are you doing everything you can to help grow the company while helping others understand the need for growth? Do you understand the vision of the company?

Welcome Growth and Learning by Maura S.

When I joined Zappos six years ago, I had no intention of building a career here. I lived in San Francisco and tried to find a job in full time in some museum. It did not work out very well, and I applied to the call center in order to be able to pay for the rent of the apartment.

Then it was just a job. Now it has evolved into something much more meaningful.

The fact that Zappos is a great place to work comes from two things: the great people I spent my days with and their fantastic customer service philosophy. But I don't think I really realized how unusual this company was until I believed in it when I moved to Las Vegas with Zappos in April 2004.

The list of key values ​​was sent to us in 2006. We knew the company had a unique corporate culture, but now we had something to reference, something to contribute to, something to say, “Yes! We believe in it!”.

Core values ​​weren't just for the office, they were a way of life.

I identified with them and loved them all, but immediately turned my attention to item number five: “Welcome growth and learning.”

By that time, I had worked for the company for two and a half years. In such a short time, I was promoted and moved to the position of manager, although I had no experience and did not ask for a promotion. Looking back, I am grateful that the leaders made this decision.

I knew that Zappos trusted me, maybe even more than in some cases I trusted myself. Therefore, I was able to rapidly learn and grow both personally and professionally.

After the list of core values ​​appeared, I really began to "welcome" the growth and learning of everyone around me. I realized how lucky I was to work in such a supportive atmosphere, where I could come up with an idea, knowing in advance that I would be told “come on, do it.”

I became more confident as one of the leaders of the company. I convinced myself to start speaking for Zappos at conferences, even though five years ago I would have been horrified. Now I like it. I am learning and growing not only within the walls of Zappos, but also in my personal life.

I was able to set a goal and buy a house on my own.

As a child, I read voraciously, but at the university I lost my taste for reading. Now I can't do without all those wonderful books again. I also convinced myself to go back to healthy lifestyle life. I have run five half marathons so far and am currently training for my first full marathon in December (sponsored by Zappos!).

I went to Asia to scuba dive, to Central America to climb the volcano, where from our camp we watched the eruption of his neighbor. This is happiness! Surprise It's nice to look back on these past six years and see how much I've grown and changed.

This growth is largely due to Zappos, and every day on the way to work, I can't wait to start learning something new again.

Build open and honest relationships and I through the exchange of information

Generally speaking, we believe that openness and honesty contribute to better relationships because they lead to trust and faith. We value strong relationships with everyone: managers, subordinates, customers (both external and internal), suppliers, business partners, team members and colleagues.

A strong, positive, open and honest relationship is what sets Zappos apart from most other companies. Without them, we would have achieved much less.

A key component is the development of emotional connections. It is important to always act honestly, be compassionate, friendly, loyal, and have confidence that you are doing the right thing and valuing your relationships with others. Trust can be the hardest thing to build, but if you have it, you will achieve a lot.

In any relationship, it is important to be both a good listener and a good speaker.

Open, honest exchange of information best base for any relationship, but remember that, in the end, it's not what you say or do that matters, but how people feel about it. For relationships to be joyful, you need to know that others truly care about you, both personally and professionally.

We at Zappos encourage diversity of thought, opinion and experience. The wider and more diverse your relationships, the more positively you influence the company and the more valuable you are to it. And for relationship building, effective, open, and honest communication is critical.

As a company grows, communication becomes more important because everyone needs to understand how their department's efforts fit into the big picture.

Even if the organization's communication is good, it's usually still its weakest point. We want everyone to continually strive to move further towards encouraging a comprehensive and effective exchange of information.

Ask yourself: How many people enjoy working with you? how can you improve your relationship with them? What new connections can you forge in the company besides the colleagues you interact with on a daily basis? how can you evoke a “wow!” feeling in the people you connect with? How can you make your relationship with them more open and honest? how can you improve communication with everyone else?

ZAPPOS Information Sharing Policy

Be realistic and use informed judgment.

Create a positive team spirit and family environment

At Zappos, we emphasize our corporate culture because we are both a team and a family. We want to create a friendly, warm and exciting atmosphere. We encourage diversity of thoughts, opinions and points of view.

The best leaders are those who lead by example and are both team leaders and team members. We believe that more often than not, the best ideas and solutions come from the bottom, that is, those who are “on the front line”, closest to the client and / or the source of the problem. The role of the manager is to remove obstacles and facilitate successful work of his immediate subordinates. This means that the best leaders are they are servant leaders. They serve those they lead.

The best team members, noticing the difficulties, take the initiative so that the team they lead can achieve success. The best team members jump in to tackle the challenges their peers face and work with them to resolve any issues that arise.

The best team members have a positive impact on everyone they encounter. They try to fight any manifestations of cynicism and negative attitudes towards people. The best team members are those who strive for harmony with everyone around them in any situation.

We believe that the best teams are those whose members not only work together but also communicate outside of the office. Many of the best ideas that arose in the company were a direct result of informal communication between employees.

For example, during a friendly chat after work, the idea was born to write a book about corporate culture.

We are more than a team - we are a family. We look after each other, care for each other and are ready to do a lot for each other, because we believe in each other and trust each other. We work together, but we also rest together. Our bonds go much further than the typical employee relationships seen in most other companies.

Ask yourself: how can you promote even closer teamwork?

How can you encourage people to take even more initiative? How can you encourage people to get involved in problem solving? What can you do with your team members to make them feel like a team and a family? How can you build stronger relationships with your team members both in and out of the office? Do you instill team spirit and a sense of family closeness not only in your department, but throughout the company? Are you setting an example of team spirit?

Create a positive team spirit and family environment by Robin P.

My husband died under tragic circumstances in December 2007. I was afraid to imagine what it would turn out for our children, our entire family and for me. Upon learning of what had happened, I was just speechless, and then decided to call. Oddly enough, it wasn't a call to a close relative. I called my employer, Zappos.com. This impulse alone made me aware of the strong connection I felt with my colleagues and with corporate culture Zappos. I really felt at home there.

I was hysterical, and when my supervisor listened to me, she showed compassion, and then gave advice that calmed me. She assured me that I didn't have to worry about anything but take care of myself and my family, and that I could call her day and night if I needed anything. After she gave me all her phone numbers, I realized that she was sincere.

As much as Zappos had meant to me before, the way the company handled itself after my husband's death amazed and captivated me. I was convinced that I should not be in a hurry to go to work. They even volunteered to help at the funeral. My relatives have never heard of such an employer's attitude. I just smiled and said, “Great. That's Zappos."

When I returned to work, I was nervous because I did not know how my colleagues would treat me. But she didn't worry for long. There was always someone who could listen, offer words of comfort, sit next to me when I let my tears flow, or just give me a hug. Both colleagues and supervisors gave me time to heal and keep me strong, which I badly needed in order to remain a useful and efficient member of the team.

The main contribution made by my extended family to Zappos has been support and friendship. Zappos has been my refuge and rehab center, giving everything so that I can continue to live.

Do more with less

Zappos has always strived to do more with less. Although we may approach each other informally, we are focused and serious when it comes to organizing our business. We believe in hard work and extra effort to get things done.

We believe in operational excellence and understand that there is always room for improvement in everything we do. This means that our work will never end.

To stay ahead of the competition (or possible competitors), we need to constantly innovate as well as make positive changes in operations, striving to work more efficiently, trying to figure out how to achieve a better result. We see mistakes as an opportunity to learn something.

We must not forget that we have little time to make improvements. We must never stop at the “good enough” stage, because good is the enemy of great, and our goal is not just to become a great company, but to become the greatest service company in the world. We set and exceed our own standards, constantly raising the bar for our competitors and ourselves.

Ask yourself: How can you do your job more effectively? how to make your department more efficient? How can the company as a whole achieve greater efficiency? How can you personally help the company become more efficient?

Doing more with less by Vanilla L.

I joined Zappos in 2007 at a difficult time in my life. I contacted recruitment agency looking for a job, and they told me that there is one company that could be very suitable for me. The minute I walked through her door, my life changed.

I remember thinking that the Core Values ​​seemed simple, easy to implement, and incredibly effective. Of the ten points, the idea of ​​“doing more with less” is what I put into practice in the most ways.

On the eve of my first Christmas at Zappos, I had no family, no car, no phone, no money, no place to go for the holidays. I was determined to celebrate Christmas, even if I had to do it alone. Every day until Christmas Eve I will go to the store, buy something for the holiday, and then I will arrange a small feast for myself.

I ended up buying two sweet potatoes at a sale for thirty-nine cents each.

This is where my shopping ended. Christmas came, I had only sweet potatoes. There were no spices, not even a frying pan in which to cook it. Only aluminum foil was found.

Opening the locker, I found a bag of cocoa with medlar. I sifted the contents of the bag, separating even the smallest particles of medlar, washed them in water and added to the sweet potato for taste.

I ate everything, although it was tasteless. But the funny thing is… at that moment I was incredibly happy! I will never forget how happy I felt that night. But I could be completely unhappy, mourning my loneliness, because before the Christmas holidays I spent with relatives at a table bursting with food.

I knew that the need to “domore with less”, forcing you to think outside the box both in your personal life and onwork. There is not only one way to do something, but an infinite number of them. Toto find, invent and implement them, you need an open-minded, creative mind. Here at ZapposI am more creative, passionate and resourceful than ever before.

Here, obstacles on the road are never mistaken for dead ends. Difficulties are welcome here.

I remember how I cooked sweet potatoes then, doing more with less. I now know that any challenges you face in life are to be welcomed as they help you learn and grow.

Since then, I've had many material possessions like a phone, a car, a house, and a steady supply of groceries (including sweet potatoes!). I know that happiness does not depend on food, but I must confess one weakness ... I still like sweet potato with dried medlar!

Be passionate and determined

Passion is the fuel that drives the company and ourselves forward. We value passion, determination, perseverance and understanding of the urgency of the task.

We act with passion because we believe in what we do and where we are going. We never take "no" or "it won't work" for an answer, because if we did, Zappos would never have been born.

Enthusiasm and determination are contagious. We believe in being positive and optimistic (albeit realistic) about everything we do because we know it encourages everyone to do the same.

There is always excitement when you know that everyone you work with contributes to the common vision and to the realization of the common dream, and you see it every day.

Ask yourself: are you passionate about the company? are you passionate about your work? do you like what you do and the people you work with? are you happy here? do you get inspired? Do you believe in what you are doing and where you are going? do you feel that your place is here?

Be Passionate and Determined by Dr. Wick

A couple of years ago, I met one of the employees of our customer loyalty group. She was young, twenty-one to be exact, and tired of throwing money down the drain by renting the apartment she lived in. So I thought about buying a house.

She and her husband had a bunch of unpaid bills and large credit card debts, so there was almost no free money left. They could save only twenty dollars a month for the purchase of a future home. We decided that saving so little money to buy such an important thing is quite possible. It was within their power to save this amount, so they started with it, a more rapid start could push them away from this venture.

Thirty days later she told me that saving twenty dollars was easy and that they wanted to increase the amount. And since new habit it was so easy to save money, they decided to start paying off other debts, such as student loans. Although the changes did not happen overnight, the movement in the right direction was started, and progress was not long in coming.

Quite often she told me about how they were doing, and after a couple of years it turned out that all the debts were paid off and that they had just bought a new house. And after a while they even got a pleasure boat.

They didn't succeed overnight, but her dedication and determination to carry out the plan was impressive, to say the least. Thanks to this story, she realized that she could influence her future, her life, and she just had to make some kind of decision and start implementing it.

be humble

Although we are growing very fast, we understand that there are always challenges ahead that we will have to contend with. And we know that we must respect all people no matter what. While we celebrate individual and team success, it doesn't make us self-confident, we treat others the way we want to be treated. We carry on with calm confidence because we believe that in the long run, a person's character will speak for itself.

Ask yourself: Are you humble when it comes to your accomplishments? Are you humble when it comes to company achievements? Do you treat both large and small suppliers with the same respect they treat you?

It has long been considered a dream company. The co-owner and CEO of the company, Tony Shay, is sure that employees should be happy, only in this case they can really work well. To maintain the appropriate atmosphere, he arranges surprise parties in the office, concerts, and even brings llamas to work. This year Shay started to act big. He eliminated all managerial positions, from now on everyone is equal in the company. Business Insider wrote a large article about the experiment, and The Secret chose the most interesting facts from it.

At the end of March, one and a half thousand Zappos employees received a letter from Tony Shay, which said that all managerial posts were being eliminated in the company. From now on, each employee will work on equal terms in one or more groups that solve various problems. Shay offered his employees an ultimatum: get on with the new workflow by April 30 or leave Zappos with a three-month severance pay. In May, 210 employees (14%) quit.

Tony Shay became the CEO of Zappos in 2000, when his venture capital fund Venture Frogs invested $2 million in the startup. But they didn’t make much bets on the company - then there were doubts that anyone would manage to sell shoes on the Internet at all. Shay was not going to develop an online store, but the dot-com crash happened, and his venture capital fund lost all assets. Except Zappos.

By the end of 2003, the company's revenue exceeded $70 million, and six years later, Amazon bought Zappos for $1.2 billion, making the online shoe store its own independent division. Shay has always paid a lot of attention to corporate culture - he is sure that employees work more efficiently when they have the opportunity to express themselves, so the company did not stop surprise parties, corporate concerts, days of themed costumes. Often, llamas, Shay's favorite animals, unexpectedly appeared in the office. After the deal with Amazon, the CEO decided that Zappos should pay even more attention to the individuality of employees. He turned to the Holacracy system.

The system was invented by programmer Brian Robertson, who overnight became a management guru. In the dot-com era, Robertson took up the topic of agile workflow management, particularly fascinated by the idea of ​​front-line employees making decisions. Over ten years, he has accumulated and studied the experience of various management practices and founded HolarchyOne, which provides tools and coaching for companies that have decided to abandon their traditional management models.

In 2012, Robertson presented Holocracy at a business conference in Austin. Immediately after the performance, an enthusiastic man broke through to him, who stood out from the mass of respectable listeners with his deliberately simple T-shirt and jeans. He impatiently began to tell Robertson that companies needed to be run as if they were cities. The lecturer only waved away the listener, but after a few hours he realized: this obsessive guy was Tony Shay. Robertson contacted the Zappos CEO, and he had already decided that Holacracy was the right fit for his business.

Shay brought Robertson to Zappos' Las Vegas headquarters in March 2013 to oversee the Holacracy pilot program for the company's HR department, which employs about a hundred people. Then the employees were introduced in detail to the Robertson system, which supposed to abandon the traditional distribution of roles and monotonous work for the sake of effective multitasking. Instead of repetitive tasks on a daily basis, employees must distribute constantly changing tasks and goals among themselves.

Photo: Bloomberg/Getty Images

So, the HR department was divided into several groups working on specific daily projects. Weekly employees were gathered for meetings, where they drew a general picture of the goals for the coming days and summed up the results. At such meetings, any of the participants could speak to make the necessary adjustments or evaluate the work of the teams. Within the groups, responsible for the distribution of roles and overall performance indicators were appointed. Responsible regularly rotated.

This distribution of power in the company means that hiring, firing and approving expenses cannot be determined by the will of one person - this is done by committees that debate among themselves and work out compromises.

It took three months to implement a new work model in the HR department of Zappos. At first, at collective meetings, employees only complained about Holocracy and demanded a return to the usual management system, but soon this story was accepted as a challenge to their own abilities. As a result of the experiment, employees who initially disliked Robertson sincerely thanked him for the experience and tried to hug the embarrassed coach.

Over the following months, Robertson continued to maintain contact with the HR pilot group. By the end of 2013, Tony Shay, who was closely monitoring the results of the experiment and the effectiveness of the work, was sure that the time had come to completely transition Zappos to a new self-management system. A mounth later CEO publicly announced that by 2015 the company would retire all managerial positions.

When Tony Shay's email arrived at Zappos on March 24, they were divided into two camps. The first included those who saw this as an opportunity to be at the forefront of the office revolution. In the second - those who decided to leave the experiment as soon as possible.

Shea agrees that Zappos was not quite ready for innovation, but quickly notes that the process of change in management began a year and a half ago, so this is hardly news to most managers. Ultimately, the majority decided to stay, not least because of the energizing corporate lifestyle that everyone had become accustomed to.

Even the 210 people who left the company believe that the new system could work in the end, because the rest were immediately involved in the process of the office revolution and found it exciting.

While Tony Shay does not promise that the reorganization of the workflow will directly affect financial indicators online store. For him, this experiment is visionary. Although the company is not going to lose profit either. In February, Zappos announced that it expects 2015 operating profit of $97 million, up 78% from last year.

Cover photo: Charley Gallay / Stringer

The Zappos.com online store was opened in 1999. The store has no offline history, it was conceived and opened precisely as an online store for making remote purchases.

History of Zappos

The idea of ​​​​creating an online store came to Nick Swinmurn (the founder of the store) after he visited several shopping centers in search of suitable shoes, but in the end, after spending the whole day, he returned home without a purchase. One store had the right color but didn't have the right size, another had the size but didn't have the color, and a third didn't like the styles. This is how the idea of ​​creating a store was born, in which, firstly, there would be a huge selection of shoes, and secondly, the search and selection of these shoes would not be very burdensome for the buyer. Despite the specifics of the goods sold, it not only survived the severe crisis of the early 2000s, but also became the largest online shoe store in the United States.

Product range

Initially, Zappos positioned itself solely as a shoe store, and this idea seemed doubtful to many, since, unlike clothes, it is very difficult to choose shoes without trying them on. Later, when the business began to develop rapidly, clothing and all kinds of accessories were also included in the assortment of the store. In this way, Zappos became almost a one-stop-shop for clothes and shoes, with no gender or age divisions.

The range of goods offered in the store is huge. First of all, it is, of course, shoes - men's, women's and children's. There are offers for every taste and budget. The store offers shoes for sale 272 men's brands, 423 for women and 155 for children. The range of clothes and accessories sold is also not inferior to these figures. Zappos is a multi-brand store with about a thousand trademarks, including Adidas, UGG, and more.

Distinctive features

The hallmark of the store is the presentation of goods on their "virtual showcases". To compensate for the impossibility of trying on, each shoe model is photographed from seven angles and is accompanied by a video.

The interface deserves separate warm words - any product can have several, or even a dozen or two colors, so each trading position, in fact, is a whole group of positions, and you can view all the options by simply switching the palette.

Perhaps one of the most impressive tools of the service is "zoom". Each model of anything, you can magnify many times in high resolution, and examine almost under a microscope every seam and every fiber. Thus, the company has done everything to provide the client with the maximum effect of presence.

Loyalty to customers

Zappos is known all over the world for its corporate culture, which even books are written about, as well as for its attention and care for the client. In particular, the site has very loyal rules for returning goods. If the buyer is not satisfied with the purchased product, the store gives him the right to make a free return of the goods to the store within 365 days from the date of purchase, provided that the product was not in use and its presentation was preserved. In this case, not only the return is compensated, but also the delivery. You just need to print out the so-called "Return Label" from your account and stick it on the package. Refunds to the card are carried out within a week after the delivery of the parcel.

Where to buy cheaper?

If the price of an item doesn't suit you, Zappos has come up with a solution. To sell its range at lower prices, Zappos has a separate outlet division - the 6PM online store, which sells the rest of the collections with very significant discounts.

merger

In July 2009, Zappos joined Amazon.com and became one of the divisions of this largest American retailer, but at the same time retained both its own brand and its own online store.

Online shoe store Zappos, which has grown from a bedroom office to a multi-billion dollar corporation in 10 years, is considered the #1 corporate culture business in the world. Western executives and managers, when they want to describe a business style grounded in the power of corporate culture, often use expressions like "Zappos-like" or "Zappos-style."

Indeed, I've read quite a few books on building teamwork within a company, and they all use Zappos as an example and role model. And the books are full of examples of special rules, laws and customs of the corporate atmosphere of the shoe giant, which are really surprising. Here, in my opinion, are the 10 most interesting of them:

1. When applying for a job, the applicant is not required to talk about his achievements on same place work. On the contrary, he is asked to tell about his own mistakes, to tell stories from his life. The interview is more like a meeting in the “lonely hearts club” - in a small hall, decorated in a solemn style, music sounds, there are tables with drinks and treats. HR managers and job seekers move freely and communicate in buffet mode.

2. Upon hiring, all employees are required to complete a four-month training course. Job seekers learn the history of Zappos, go hiking and traveling together. Each employee of the company, from the janitor to the CEO, must work in the call center "on the phone" for two weeks in order to better understand the company's customers.

3. On the first day of training, the company offers all job seekers $2,000 if they immediately quit working at Zappos. Statistically, only a few do.

4. The company diligently maintains and develops an unusual atmosphere in the office. Each employee can arrange his work place the way he wants. Some arrange real minimalism on the tables, others put a bed in the office and sleep on it in moments of fatigue - no one limits the creativity of employees, on the contrary, the company pays for repairs. Walking robots can be found in the Zappos office, offering popcorn, a golf course, and more. Here is one of the photos of the company's office.

5. Anyone can visit the Zappos office located in Las Vegas - for this you need to sign up for a tour on the site. Even if only one person signs up for the tour, they will still send a special bus directly to the plane (this happened once). In the office, you can take pictures and touch anything, you can communicate with all employees and enter all rooms. You can even look to the CEO of the company, Tony Shay. All office visitors become Zappos employees for a few hours and can feel at home.

6. When entering the Zappos internal network, employees are asked not only for a username and password. A photo of any employee of the company, randomly selected from the database, also appears on the screen - you need to enter his name. Of course, in case of an error, the employee will still get into the network, but the company maintains its own rating of employee knowledge.

7. All employees of the company can express their vision of corporate culture, talk about their life at Zappos, share stories. All stories are included in a special Zappos Culture Book. This book can be obtained absolutely free of charge by anyone - the company will send it to you by mail. To receive the book, write an email to [email protected] Yes, you read that right - this is the mailing address of CEO Tony Shay's company. By the way, I wrote him a letter and talked to Tony's assistant, Stefan. Stefan said that he represents a small group of “mail ninjas” Tony, because Shay receives more than 2,000 letters a day, and he himself can no longer cope. Of course, my copy of the book has already been sent to me.

8. The company offers its suppliers and partners a special web service with which you can track absolutely all financial and logistical indicators of the company. Suppliers see sales data, warehouse occupancy, average shoe delivery times, and more. This complete openness creates an atmosphere of incredible trust - it's not for nothing that dozens of global brands are in line to conclude contracts with Zappos.

9. On the table of each employee of the company there is a set of postcards that are proposed to be sent to buyers of shoes. Zappos employees wish ordinary customers a pleasant journey, they are interested in the quality of shoes and ask about possible problems.

10. Call center employees are trained to provide maximum information on any issue and be as helpful as possible, regardless of whether the issue concerns shoes or Zappos itself. Once, Tony Shay, as a joke, called the support service of his own company, gave the operator his address in a slightly drunken voice and asked where he could order pizza nearby. Five minutes later he had several addresses and phone numbers of pizzerias.

Indeed, Zappos is a company with an amazing corporate culture, and its features are not limited to the list above - there are hundreds, if not thousands, of such “chips”. No wonder that in November 2009, Zappos was bought by Amazon for $1.2 billion. Experts say that the computer giant was interested not so much in an online shoe store as in the opportunity to join the corporate culture No. 1 in the world.

Zappos - Delivering Happiness is a book that I recommend to anyone who is concerned with improving the quality of their customer service. Written by humble boyfriend Tony Shay, 39, who at 25 sold his first startup, LinkExchange, to Microsoft for $265 million, and at 35, sold his #1 online shoe store, Zappos, for $1.20. billion Amazon.

The unique and already almost canonized Zappos company is distinguished not by the scale of the business, but by the unique corporate culture of the company, which has been one of the most desirable employers in America for several years. Here are 15 amazing things about Zappos that are either not in the book or mentioned in passing, which were recently written about by a visitor to the company.

1

Mythology and symbolism. Americans, like no one else, are able to turn every event in their history into an entertainment. Zappos also released Bringing Happiness as a comic book to help simplify difficult material to understand and remember, as well as to mythologize the fate of the company and its top managers, in fact, making them superheroes. The penchant for symbolism also manifests itself in another way. The company has a ritual - each new employee cut off the tie. At the entrance there is a board with hundreds of cut ties and the names of their former owners. Workplace Tony Shea, who is no longer a full-time employee after being sold to Amazon, is carefully preserved by employees - this is part of the history, part of the brand. Until recently, Tony worked with everyone together in open space. Modesty is one of his main and favorite values.

2

Self-discipline instead of control. A lot of employees with tattoos and unusual hairstyles. But we must pay tribute - the internal maturity of employees does not allow them to cross the boundaries of decency. As long as you can dress however you like. Alcohol is not prohibited, but I did not come across drunk employees. I saw in the new project of Tony Shay a huge bar with all possible alcoholic drinks and asked, “How often is it updated?” It turned out to be very rare: people drink, but do not get drunk. The dining room at Zappos is very small for a company of six hundred people, but for some reason there are no queues: apparently, because there is no lunch break (eat when you want to eat), and no one around sharpens flies using lunch as a legitimate way to score work and gossip. Very large selection of food, very tasty, everything is free. In fact, by the absence of external frameworks, the company checks the internal content of employees “for lice”.

3

Psychologist, fun manager and concierge instead of a salary increase. At Zappos, they not only opt for non-material motivation instead of banal salary increases, but also do it in such a way that this non-material motivation develops employees, allows them to work more and more efficiently (and at the same time, be happier). Gorgeous Augusta is a life coach at Zappos: it’s something like a full-time psychologist for employees (all anonymously) and a mentor-mentor all rolled into one. On the walls in the company everywhere there are thank-you notes about it (writing ideas and thanks on the walls is part of the company's culture). She's been working with Shay for a bunch of years. A kind of corporate mother. Talks, moves and looks like a rapper - good rhythm works magnetically during presentations and conversations. There are also fun-managers in the staff - their task is to organize constant corporate parties (more on them below). In addition, an internal concierge service has been organized - it solves all issues: from placing a child in a school to finding a repair specialist or an apartment for rent. Zappos understands that every employee has occasional problems that distract from work and make them nervous. So why shouldn't the company take care of these concerns at the system level, leaving their solution to professionals, and the employee will work more efficiently in gratitude?

4

Work is like home. All workplaces are designed by employees themselves - at their discretion. The company even allocates a separate budget for this. The point is for the employee to stop separating home and work and not seek to “break free” at any opportunity. It is noteworthy that this is not abused: it is clear that all employees are very mature in their intellectual and emotional development. I didn’t see Playboy calendars on the walls or printouts of demotivators. By the way, I have never seen dirty dishes on the tables here - it is considered normal here to clean up after a colleague, if suddenly someone littered and forgot to put things in order. “It doesn’t concern me” is definitely not a rule in the company. It's all about everyone here. I really liked the mechanics of involving employees not only in the corporate culture, but also in environment and responsibility for it: each employee is given $50 every month, which he can spend as he likes, but not for himself: give it to another colleague, donate to charitable foundation(that's where most of the money goes), etc.

5

Fee only for success. Ordinary Zappos employees were sincerely surprised by the Russian tradition of thirteenth salaries or bonuses for successfully completed projects. In their understanding, salaries are paid for successfully completed projects, and if they are not completed, welcome to the labor market. AT bonus system only top managers are included. In addition, Shay paid everyone a generous bonus when they sold Zappos to Amazon - everyone still remembers this and is still grateful.

6

Hire people smarter than you. Everyone knows this rule. But how many companies have you seen where the intellectual potential would be concentrated at the bottom? That's the way it is at Zappos - people in the ranks are really the coolest specialists. In general, there is a very interesting atmosphere inside - people see that you outer man, new, everyone greets you, tries to show something interesting or suggest something (starting with a cook in a canteen or a specialist in a call center and ending with Deputy Shay). And this is not blah blah blah, but a kind of mutually beneficial deal: I will share valuable information with you, and later you will repay me the same. All the people I met at various levels of the ‎Zappos hierarchy were distinguished by this awesome positive. No forced smiles. Only a lively sense of humor and natural behavior. Everyone is very well kept, responding to uncomfortable questions. Everyone understands perfectly well how all these free meals, freedom of expression and other benefits lead to profit.

7

Get to work - only through Skype and the assessment center. It is impossible to get into ‎Zappos without going through the assessment system of this company, even if you are a friend of Tony Shay and you have been approved by the manager according to your professional indicators. Here it is believed that the culture of a person and his ability to work in a team is more important. First, a couple of remote interviews are conducted. One - through the taketheinterview.com system (this is a video interview service similar to Skype, only with the ability to record and store) - compares values, the other - determines the level of professional knowledge. During a Skype interview, you are asked the most unexpected questions ("If a movie was made about you, which Hollywood star would you play?"). This is how reaction, creativity, openness are tested. Then the person is invited to a personal interview, which takes almost a day. All assessment by HR is absolutely subjective - there is no system: only a head on the shoulders, a sense of humor and mentorship between HR specialists. During a personal visit, surprises continue - the taxi driver that will be sent to you by the company will be an HR specialist, and he will test you much faster than it happens in a formal setting. All incoming applications from candidates are stored in the JobVite HR-CRM system - the company remembers you whenever you contact them and regardless of the requested position. The company itself is practically not looking for personnel - it has an independent incoming flow of resumes at the level of 60 thousand people a year. After the first month, the employee is offered $2,000 as compensation. A month later - $ 3 thousand. At the same time, they have low turnover and an impressive average tenure in the company.

8

If you want to work at Zappos, be ready to move. The company's move to Las Vegas was once driven not only by the cheap rent of local space and the cost of ordinary employees, but also by the fact that this is the best market for customer-oriented service personnel in the States (it is curious that the company has 20% more employees than it should - this is done with a view to further growth). At the same time, higher positions are closed by people from other cities who have to move.

9

Parties are part of the job. After the interview, the applicant must visit a club with colleagues or attend a party - and only then make a decision on admission. The company does not just need professionals - Zappos needs professionals who are pleasant and comfortable together in order to have the notorious synergistic effect at the end. Even after joining the company, parties continue on a regular basis - they allow newcomers to better integrate into the team, and other colleagues to look at each other in a new way, relax, talk about new topics and discover new ideas. In an informal setting, under the influence of alcohol, closed people with cockroaches in their heads quickly inject - at Zappos they often meet with candidates who mimic the company's values, and such mechanics allow them to be brought to light.

"No" - quantitative KPI, "yes" - qualitative. The evaluation of ‎Zappos call center employees does not depend on quantitative indicators (the number of processed calls, etc.), but largely depends on the PEC rating (Personal Emotional Connection) - whether the employee was able to establish contact with the client or not. If a dog barking in the background was heard during the call - and he did not ask the breed, if the laughter of children was heard - and he did not ask the age and names, if the client buys wedding shoes, and the employee did not ask how long they have been together, and where and when there will be a wedding if a teenager buys basketball shoes and was not asked for the name of his favorite team, and also if he plays for the school team - all this is epic fail. An employee should not sell goods - it is better for him to establish personal contact and not sell anything this time than to sell without causing a wow effect in the client at the same time.

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Mayer instead of Branson. Recently, everyone has been following the picking of Marissa Mayer (CEO of Yahoo!) and Richard Branson (owner of Virgin) - the first one canceled remote work, which is considered the norm in high technologies, and the second predicted her imminent bankruptcy and the flight of personnel (although so far the opposite is true - old employees are returning, and the company's shares are growing). Zappos does not believe in remote work - if you are talking about values ​​and people, then these people should meet and communicate live. If a person does not want to communicate with colleagues, this is a wake-up call. This means that it can destroy culture, there will be no synergy from it, sooner or later it will fail.

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Are you ready to work in better working conditions, but for a lower salary? A surefire way to fail a ‎Zappos interview is to say you just want to make more money. In itself, this is normal, but if you do not have a passionate desire for something more, write wasted. Conformists are not needed here. The company even has a stress test - at the end of the conversation you are warned that they will make an offer only if you agree to earn less than in the same place. At Zappos, I met a lot of people who came here for less money, but the working conditions and development prospects made them happier than the salary at the moment.

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Expansion of corporate culture: from the company to the area. Now Tony Shay has opened two cafes in Las Vegas near the headquarters - The beat coffeehouse and Eat (only breakfasts and lunches). In the first one, everything is very simple - coffee, wooden furniture, handmade style, old rock on vinyl - the cafe was created for startups and is very popular with them. Tony and his friends regularly come here, consult and give advice to aspiring entrepreneurs for free. Also in the cafe there is a gallery of contemporary art Emergency Art - to support young artists. Today, Tony Shay is completely absorbed in his new project - Downtown project - a creative quarter in Las Vegas for aspiring entrepreneurs and technology startups (and the new headquarters of Zappos, of course). He is investing $300 million: $200 million in infrastructure (offices, co-working spaces, housing for new residents, a hotel), $50 million in local startups, and another $50 million in developing the area's art. The main idea is to get synergy from the ecosystem. If you bring together a lot of creative people, they will work and hang out together in one place. This will give them access to best ideas, the best personnel will be better motivated. In order not to break away from business, in the same project, Tony Shay provided for himself an apartment: he works and lives in it.

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Live and learn. Immediately after Zappos, I went to Portland to talk with Josh Reich, CEO of the very famous financial startup Simple.com. I didn't know this - but when we met, it turned out that Josh considers himself a student of Tony Shay. From the very beginning, Josh decided that if he wanted to build not a successful startup for sale, but a long-term scalable business, he needed to seriously attend to corporate culture. After two failed attempts to hunt down Zappos employees, Tony Shay called him and said bluntly, “You can't do this. You better come to me, live and see how we work, ask any questions - and soon your own people will be no worse!

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Is Zappos culture possible here? The main question that I discussed with Tony Shay and Jen Lynn (co-author of his book and CEO of his company Delivering Happiness) is how possible it is to recreate the Zappos culture in Russia (in fact, in Ukraine too)? We have a very similar culture at Life, but it is difficult to scale. My main antithesis was that employees in Russia need not only “happiness” and all sorts of benefits, but also stress, restrictions and pressure. There is a saying: in order to appreciate something, you must first lose it. Jenn's fate, by the way, confirms this 100% - before each take-off in her career, she had a lot of stress or loss. In my opinion, an employee who does not have to fight for survival loses his tone, focus, and motivation to develop. I believe that the Zappos experience only works with mature people - who have great experience behind them, they have seen and lost a lot, they are all right with self-control. As a result, we came to the following intermediate conclusion: in the States, this approach looks more organic, but there it is very high level entrepreneurial culture in itself (education is paid and is given with sweat and blood, the vacation is short, you can fire a bad employee in three days, and not like ours). It is harmful for our dependent mentality to give so many freedoms at once. People with a low level of self-control, self-responsibility, passive, not energized for their work and results, will simply gorge themselves on this freedom and they will feel sick like babies who do not yet have a sense of proportion.