SXSW Panel: Zappos, zeitgeist, and schadendfreude.
Inspiring lecture by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh about what makes us happy. His thought being that happy people translate to happy customers which then translate to good business. His emphasis was on culture, specifically corporate culture and the importance of commitment and engagement. He takes this so far that he offers employees $2,000 to LEAVE the company. His premise being that someone who is financially motivated is the wrong fit for his desired culture. It’s a noble approach and I hope it can succeed, but I fear there is a certain amount of hubris embedded in this approach. Every time I’ve gone to a conference, there is someone conflating their success with their approach. And while sometimes this turns out to be true, more often than not, the shine wears off, complacency sets in, and the “new” is discarded for trusted fundamentals. I’ve seen it from businesses like Bank of America, high on bad mortgages, preaching the merits of their collaborative workplace. Or, at one time, hot agencies like X , associating their success with employees not having desks, when the reality was that they had a couple good creative teams carrying the load, and once they left, so did the clients, and eventually the desks returned. These are cautionary tales, and I don’t mean to diminish their intentions, but zeitgeist and serendipity have more to do with success than any other new-school or old-school tactics. And perhaps, not coincidentally, I turned on the TV later than night to see Tony Hsieh sitting next to Donald Trump as the client on Celebrity Apprentice. For someone whose success revolves around ethical customer service, and integrity based internal culture, mixed signals abound.
posted by Jay Miller on March 24th, 2009 at 8:57 am Permanent link to this post
