How Tony Hsieh Built a Great Company (Cult)ure

How Tony Hsieh Built a Great Company (Cult)ureHow Tony Hsieh Built a Great Company (Cult)ureHow Tony Hsieh Built a Great Company (Cult)ure Lev-RamOne night, while having drinks at a bar near the office, Tony Hsiehand about 10 Zappos colleagues discussed how they could keep hiring people who fit in well at the company.Hsieh asked each person to say a sentence or two about what they thought of the Zappos company culture, and someone suggested typing up the comments and passing them around to all the companys employees.Hsieh went one step further in August 2004 he sent an e-mail to employees with the subject line Zappos Culture Book. In his e-mail, Hsieh asked each employee to write 100 to 500 words on what he liked about the companys culture and what made it different from other workplaces.Since then, the Zappos Culture Book has been given to prospective employees, customers, and vendors. A new edition of the book is produced each year, including new feedback to show how the culture h as evolved.Discovering Company ValuesAfter the debut of the Zappos Culture Book, someone in the companys legal staff suggested that Hsieh and his management team come up with a list of core company values, to be used as a guide for managers to make hiring decisions. Hsieh started jotting down a list, and then decided it would be best to get everyones eingabe just as theyd done with the Culture Book.Over the course of a year, he sent multiple e-mails to the entire employee base, canvassing for opinions. The list started with 37 core values and was eventually whittled down to 101. Deliver wow through service.2. Embrace and drive change.3. Create fun and a little weirdness.4. Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded.5. Pursue growth and learning.6. Build open and honest relationships with communication.7. Build a positive team and family spirit. 8. Do more with less.9. Be passionate and determined.10. Be humble.Hsieh sent another e-mail to his employee base, this time outlining the f inal 10 core values, and describing each in detail (delivering wow through service, for example, means doing something unconventional and innovative that has an emotional impact on the receiver).Hsieh also asked his recruiting department to come up with interview questionsfor each of the core values. Since then, the list of values has served as a guide for Zappos recruiters and hiring managers.Job applicants often face wacky questions about their favorite theme songs or what two people theyd most like to invite for dinner.Its about making sure that when we interview or hire people, were able to be specific about what were looking for, says Hsieh, who adds that he regrets not establishing the companys set of core values earlier. We waited several years at Zappos, but if I had to do it all over again, I would do it on day one, he says.An Emphasis on Employee TrainingIn plus-rechnen to its Ten Commandments, Zappos has established an employee trainingprogram in which the companys philos ophy and emphasis on culture, among other things, is taught over the course of several weeks.All new hiresmust answer customer calls for two weeks, regardless of what position theyre going to fill. During the training period, recruits are offered $2,000 to quit the companys way of making sure employees are there for more than just a paycheck.As Hsieh wrote in a company blog post (Your Culture Is Your Brand) in 2009 Weve actually said no to a lot of very talented people that we know can make an immediate impact on our top or bottom line. But because we felt they werent cultural fits, we were willing to sacrifice the short-term benefits in order to protect our culture (and therefore our brand) for the long term.Excerpted with permission from Zoom Surprising Ways to Supercharge Your Career by Daniel Roberts and Fortune Contributors, Time Home Entertainment, 2013.