Book Review

Presented by:
Rajeev Saumil Prakhar Darshit Rahul Sidharth

 About About

the book Delivering Happiness

the author Tony Hsieh

About

the company Zappos.com

 Study

the life of a successful entrepreneur

Relate

theories of organizational behavior

social and behavioral theories

Understanding Application

of theories in real life situation

 Inherent

qualities of an entrepreneur Inherent quality of identifying business opportunities Started fast food chain at his dorm at MIT Social Skills: Emphasized on building both number and depth of friendships Hired many of his employees through past contacts, one of them being his most loyal pizza customer Alfred who later joined Zappos as CFO & COO

 Got

first job at Oracle Work condition was healthy & salary was good But he was not happy since the work was not exciting Tony quit his job at Oracle after 5 months

 Internet

advertising firm Formed by Tony and Sanjay Madan in March 1996, with Hsieh as CEO Customers advertised over Link Exchanges network by displaying banner ads Huge hit: 20,000 participating web pages within 90 days

In 1998, Microsoft offered to buy the

company at $265 million, but wanted Tony to stay in company for one year

If he stayed the entire time, then he would get $40 million. If he didnt, then he would have to give up 20% of that amount

 Self

Awareness: Tony observed that none of the happiest periods in his life involved money. So he left Microsoft Extraversion: Believed in enjoying his success with his friends Openness to experience: Invested in website called shoesite.com in spite of the huge risk it involved and his relative inexperience in the field

Next What??
Openness to experience

The birth of Zappos Vision

What is at stake? Risk Taking Abilities

 From

1999-2008 From 0 to $1billion company

 Years

from 2000-2002, dot com bubble burstrecession, 9/11 Short term cash flow challenges Great leaders take tough decisions in tough times: Lay-offs underperformers & nonbelievers High Internal motivation: Tonys Passion and commitment to keep the company afloat had a trickle down effect. Empathy: Kept few employees at his home when they could not afford the rent.

 Proactiveness:

Leaders are proactive in identifying a problem and convert a problem into an opportunity Transition from eLogistic WHISKY Emotional stability: Calm and unruffled in all this turmoil which helped him keep the company afloat

 Growing

Up Do we want to be about shoes, or do we want to about something bigger? Time to make switch and move to a bigger table Vision Build the Zappos brand synonymous with the very best customer service Reading Books and partnering vendors Flipping the switch From building the runway to getting ready for take off

 Flew

employees from San Francisco and Kentucky to Las Vegas in 2003 Transferred his office from San Francisco to Las Vegas Zappos Culture Book Building a Brand and Branding through customer service 10 Core Values

Self Awareness: When Tony Hsieh started public speaking, he found himself rehearsing his speech most of the time. But later he realized that his strength was his Passion, telling personal stories and be real and after that he never found the need to rehearse his speech.This shows that he has high amount of self-awareness about his strength and weakness. Empathy: Robin P. an employee of Zappos underwent a great personal tragedy in Dec. 2007 when she lost her husband. Even at this moment her first reaction was to call her senior manager at Zappos rather than her family. Her manager showed great compassion and gave sound advice to calm her. She assured her that Robin shouldn't be concerned of anything else except to take of herself and her family. She also gave Robin her every single phone number and asked to call her anytime. This showed her great empathy towards her colleague and sub-ordinate.

Agreeableness: A brilliant example is the Customer Loyalty Team (CLT) at Zappos.com. Once a friend of Tony Hsieh called up Zappos.com CLT rep to ask where she could get a pepperoni pizza so late in the night at Santa Monica hotel. The very patient CLT rep put her call on hold for a minute and came up with a list of 5 such places near the hotel which were open and delivering pizzas at the moment. MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS Employees: Many companies and managers believe that giving employees more money will make them happier, whereas most HR surveys show that once people's basic needs are met, money is farther down the list of importance than intangibles such as the quality of the relationship with one's manager and professional growth opportunities. Customers: At Zappos, an example of the customer hierarchy at work would be: 1. Receives correct item (meets expectations) 2. Free shipping (meets desires) 3. Surprise upgrade to overnight shipping (meets unrecognized needs)

Participative: Fred proposed to give vendors full visibility into the business of Zappos.com and Tony Hsieh came up with the website "the Extranet" which did the same. Now Vendors could participate in the business of Zappos.com more effectively like for ex. Vendors can write suggested orders for Zappos buyers to approve and communicate with Zappos creative team to make changes to their Brand boutiques on the site. Delegating: At Zappos.com Customer Loyalty Team was given a free hand to attend to the customers the best way they can. There is absolutely no pressure of calls per hour for a customer rep so he/she can go above and beyond for every customer.

 Business

Learning

Never outsource your core competency Invest in employees personal and professional growth Focus on internal processes Transparency is a must

Your Culture is your brand

Experience provided > Commodity provided

 Personal

Learning:

Always follow your passion Be Adventurous, Creative and Open-Minded Be unconventional Embrace and Drive Change

Pursue Growth and Learning

Be Humble