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Our whole belief is in today’s world companies are becoming more
transparent whether they like it or not. One disgruntled or happy
employee can write something on a blog and have that read by
millions. It’s the same thing with a customer. Our belief is a
company’s culture and brand are two sides of the same coin. The
brand may lack the culture but eventually it will catch up. You
can’t control every touch point like you could 50 years ago. The
only way to do it is instead of trying to “control the touch
points” is to get the right people with the right attitude, build
the right culture and the rest will take care of itself. If I were
to ask you of the brand of the airline industry, most would say
something about bad customer service. No airline went out and said
they wanted their brand to be about that, but that’s the brand of
the industry. -
With my first company it was not paying attention to the culture.
We hired the right people with the right experience and skill sets,
but we didn’t know to look for a culture fit. By the time it was
100 people, I didn’t want to go into the office anymore. That was a
weird feeling. That’s why we ended up selling the company.
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Warren Buffett’s bio “The Snowball” and lessons for startups | Andrew Chen (@andrew_chen)
BTW, also had a bottom bar
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- Enduring businesses take a long time to build
- Who cares what other people think? Boring businesses can win big
- Access to money can be a huge competitive advantage
- Success begets success
In many ways, Buffett’s world is diametrically opposed to the startup world. He specializes in boring industries, doesn’t worry much about products, and has extremely long timeframes. Yet I took a lot out of reading about his experiences, and thought I’d share some thoughts about the startup world:
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Instead of asking “what are the hot areas right now??” instead, the question to ask might be, “what are the overlooked areas right now?”
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Zappos’ Tony Hsieh on Twitter, Phone Calls and the Pursuit of Happiness | Designerati | Fast Company
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Walking In Zappos’ Footsteps
Hsieh says his focus for 2009 are the Three C’s: clothing, customer service and culture. Seven ways you can bring Zappos’ core values into your company:
1) Decide: If you’re going to build a sustainable brand, it will require more patience at the outset to lay the foundation.
2) Figure Out Values & Culture: When your personal values are in line with your company values, you don’t have to worry.
3) Commit to Transparency: From Twitter, an “Ask Anything” newsletter, extranet for vendors, tours and reporter visits, keep practices open and accessible.
4) Vision: Whatever you’re thinking, think bigger. Chase the value not the money. And that includes your employees’ vision as well.
5) Build Relationships: Not networking. Meeting interesting people.
6) Build Your Team: Hire more slowly and fire more quickly.
7) Think Long Term: Overnight successes were a long time in the making.
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Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos gets Standing Ovation | TiEcon 2009
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Hsieh went on to elaborate where happiness often comes from. Happiness he said, was about “perceived control, perceived progress, connectedness, and vision or meaning” and went on to share how these principles of personal happiness can also be applied to buisness and how they implemented them at Zappos.
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
