Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose

DIAMOND
RATING
Senteo Rating 3.5
04/27/23
views 5638
comments0
Author:Tony Hsieh
04/27/23
views 5639
comments0
Author:Tony Hsieh
DIAMOND
RATING
Senteo Rating 3.5

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
Tony Hsieh, Business Plus, 2010
Senteo’s Review information

This book chronicles the rise and success of Zappos and its unique company culture, as told by author, founder and entrepreneur, Tony Hsieh.

It is a light and entertaining read, in which the author seeks to strike a balance between customer, the employees and bottom line, identifying 10 core values that the company lives 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. This book is about corporate culture and entrepreneurism, and a rather unique case, at that.

A fun, honest, entertaining read, which defies the average business norms. Considering Hsieh was able to sell the business to Amazon for over $1billion, a very unique success story.

 

One may get the feeling reading this that it is more of a manual for employees of Zappos to promote the corporate culture, as opposed to a recipe for other companies. Without the forward-thinking, emotionally balanced and driven leadership, this approach might be difficult to implement in many businesses.

 

Now in trade paperback, the hip, iconoclastic CEO of Zappos shows how a different kind of corporate culture can make a huge difference in achieving remarkable results — by actually creating a company culture that values happiness –and then delivers on it.

  • Pay brand-new employees $2,000 to quit
  • Make customer service the responsibility of the entire company-not just a department
  • Focus on company culture as the #1 priority
  • Apply research from the science of happiness to running a business
  • Help employees grow-both personally and professionally
    Seek to change the world
  • Oh, and make money too . . .

This book contains interesting examples of corporate culture and entrepreneurship. The company pursued a balance between unique culture and an operational efficiency model of rapid response to customer needs through mail order, seeking to promote their culture outward and delivering “WOW” to its customers. For additional perspective on this subject, see Senteo’s review for Authenticity: What Customers Really Want.

Senteo Subject Category
Senteo

This book provides an analysis of what worked for Zappos in terms of creating a unique model of company culture and customer service focus. It also provides a framework of 10 core values that the company identified and lives by in designing and maintaining its business model, however this more a list of principles than specific methodology.

The best book reviews in your inbox!
Subscribe now and receive a special gift with your subscription.


    Leave a Reply

    Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
    Tony Hsieh, Business Plus, 2010
    Have you already read this book?
    Here, are people invited to rate the book?

    How useful was this post?

    Click on a star to rate it!

    Average rating / 5. Vote count:

    No votes so far! Be the first to rate this book.

    See content on this topic

    Why do customer relationships really matter? Michael Ruckman explains the fundamentals of healthy customer relationships and why they are important to businesses. The Relationship-Centric Bank
    Don't miss the 2021 CXCI - with 778 visits by mystery shoppers to 82 banks in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Michael Ruckman & Alexey
    Voice On Demand Retail Podcast: Part 1 – Customer Experience & Journeys
    Michael Ruckman talks about Customer Experiences & Customer Journeys, The three faces of Digital for Retailers and the state of leadership in the retail market today.
    Voice On Demand Retail Podcast: Part 3 – Leadership in the Retail Market
    Michael Ruckman talks about Customer Experiences & Customer Journeys, The three faces of Digital for Retailers and the state of leadership in the retail market today.
    Build a Tower, Build a Team
    Tom Wujec from Autodesk presents some surprisingly deep research into the “marshmallow problem” — a simple team-building exercise that involves dry spaghetti, one yard of tape and a marshmallow.
    Driving Change in the Age of AI: Insights from Michael Ruckman Shared on the Escaping the Drift Podcast
    In a recent episode of the Escaping the Drift podcast, host John Gafford sat down with Michael Ruckman, founder and CEO of Centeo, to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping business—and why organizational transformation must keep pace.
    Senteo Rating
    Gamify: How Gamification Motivates People to Do Extraordinary Things
    Related Book Reviews & Education
    Sinek explores the concept of leadership and offers a fundamental framework for what he believes make a good leader. In his mind, this comes down to a basic differential.
    A guide to marketing in the digital age, focusing on how to build a marketing strategy in a world where consumers are constantly bombarded with communications and have learned to tune out the ad-saturation which has engulfed consumers over the last two decades.
    In one of his best know works, author Simon Sinek explains that the ‘why’ of what people and companies do is as important as the ‘what’ and the ‘how’.
    With this book, Gabe Zinchermann returns to the gamification realm, this time with Christopher Cunningham, to elaborate on design strategy and tactics for businesses to integrate into their own strategies.