Zappos CEO adds happiness to corporate culture |
The Star-Ledger - NJ.com - Tony Hsieh brings new meaning to the term "happy feet."
In 1999, he sold LinkExchange, the internet advertising company he co-founded, to Microsoft for $265 million. He soon joined Zappos.com — a startup with a then-unthinkable goal of selling shoes online — as an investor and adviser before eventually becoming chief executive.
Hsieh made sure top notch customer service was baked into the business model of Zappos. The result is an e-commerce juggernaut that books more than $1 billion in annual sales, has been profitable since 2006 and was acquired last year by Amazon.com for a cool $1.2 billion.
Hsieh, 36, who is soft-spoken and mild-mannered, seems an unlikely business guru. But his new book has been lauded in Silicon Valley circles as required reading for every startup founder.
Called "Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose," it is a tale of entrepreneurial intrigue, punctuated with such dramas as the dot-com crash of the early 2000s and Hsieh’s tussle with a board of venture capital partners who didn’t buy into his people-power philosophy.
He spoke with Your Business recently about why culture and core values transcend mere short-term profits.
In 1999, he sold LinkExchange, the internet advertising company he co-founded, to Microsoft for $265 million. He soon joined Zappos.com — a startup with a then-unthinkable goal of selling shoes online — as an investor and adviser before eventually becoming chief executive.
Hsieh made sure top notch customer service was baked into the business model of Zappos. The result is an e-commerce juggernaut that books more than $1 billion in annual sales, has been profitable since 2006 and was acquired last year by Amazon.com for a cool $1.2 billion.
Hsieh, 36, who is soft-spoken and mild-mannered, seems an unlikely business guru. But his new book has been lauded in Silicon Valley circles as required reading for every startup founder.
Called "Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose," it is a tale of entrepreneurial intrigue, punctuated with such dramas as the dot-com crash of the early 2000s and Hsieh’s tussle with a board of venture capital partners who didn’t buy into his people-power philosophy.
He spoke with Your Business recently about why culture and core values transcend mere short-term profits.
Categories : Business-Expos-Conferences, Business Leaders, Business Books
Posted 6/20/2010 09:06:16 AM | Permalink
| SHARE IT: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
