Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose

Deliving Happiness is a fascinating book about how to grow and nurture a company. It is written by Tony Hsieh who is the early investor and the current CEO of Zappos- online company that started out selling shoes and has now branched out to selling clothes, watches, and eyewear. Unlike most CEO, he does not see the sole purpose of the business is to maximize profits for its owners. In this book he talks about how he got be where he is today and how he learned important values and lessons.Before Zappos, he had founded LinkExchange which he sold to Microsoft for $265 million. The reason he gave for selling was LinkExchange was as it grew, it lost culture and felt like it was a different company and it get to the point he dreaded getting out of the bed in the morning to go to the office. After this, he started venture fund from which he funded Zappos’s founder. Initially, Zappos struggle because it fulfilled orders with drop shipments which did not worked well because it did not have accurate information about vendors’ inventory, and because their warehouses were all over the country, delivery times weren’t predictable. Later, he began buying inventory from manufacturers, which was freezing its capital and also relying on a third party to manage its warehouse. He recalled that it never makes sense to outsource call center and warehousing because Zappos’s higher purpose is to provide the best customer service which is only possible when it has pulse of what customer want. He felt that trusting a third party would care about its customers as much as Zappos would was one of our biggest mistakes.In the book, he talks about when Zappos was losing money and could not get any more money to run its operation, they figure out that while cutting marketing expense, only thing they can do is to focusing on the customer service. He sees his company offering the best customer services possible. He eluded couple times that Zappos could get in to many other areas including offering the airline services. Later he talks about how reading book; he learned that great company has a greater purpose and bigger vision beyond just making money or being number one in a market. He would later create a book club where each employee would read a book and discuss about it and apply lesson learned at Zappos. Unlike many businesses that put the need of the investors as the center of the business, he put the need of the customer as the core, yet believes that he needs to meet the needs and desires of all stakeholders. Tony put the best customer service at his end goal, for which he put making his employee happy as his primary target. He believes that his effort to make his employee happy will in turn make his customer happy.Tony Hsieh saw his role as the philosopher. He sold his first company LinkExchange to Microsoft, because he felt that it lost its soul and reach to where he dreaded getting out of the bed in the morning to go to the office. When he invested on Zappos, and then become involved in it, he knew the culture was important. From early on, he develops a culture that he likes. As a CEO, he does not have authority like in the typical American organization. At Zappos, he saw his role as the gardener that allows everybody around him to flourish. Hsieh put the customer’s interest as his end goal. Employees are trained to have lifelong relationship with a customer. And there are growing list of CEO who toured Zappos to learn from Zappos insight and bought his idea and have implemented at their organization.In this book, he talks about creating a culture that would outlast him. He believe that if it get the culture right, then most of the other stuff like delivering great customer service or building a long-term enduring brand or business will be a natural byproduct. Culture starts with the hiring. Zappos uses two sets of interview: one by the hiring manager for the job specific role; and second by HR which is purely for the culture fit. To hire, a prospective candidate has to be pass both. It also fires employee if they are bad for the culture even though they are doing well on their job specific role. At Zappos, they hired only people they would enjoy hanging out with after hours.This book talks about meritocracy system which Hsieh implemented in 2012. It allows employees to self-organize to complete work in a way that increases productivity, foster innovation and empowers anyone in the company with the ability to make decisions that push the company forward. All employees are part of one or more circle. People on the circle can fire another people on the circle. All employees can remove themselves from a circle and move to another circle. As a CEO, Hsieh cannot hire or fire his employee. This kind of system requires trust first. He was able to build trust by developing a culture that stems from intrinsic motivation rather than extrinsic motivation. He frees his call center employee in many ways to build a lifelong relationship. One way he empowers customer service reps is by not measuring call times, not allowing them to upsell, and not using a script.It talks about how leader can affect an organization’s future by sharing his values. When things are changing fast, employees need a vision of the destination that lies beyond the horizon; they also need to understand the principles by which they must navigate their course. Without the strong value that is shared and engrained to the culture, an organization will probably lose their direction and fail. Unlike many other companies that may take only senior leadership to retreat to develop company value, he email to all his employees about their input. From all employees’ input, Zappos developed 10 core values. Since all employees have contributed to this value, they embody the company value. One value is to be adventurous, creative and open-minded which displays how his employees have embodied Zappos value.Another value he talks about is to “deliver wow through service”. To WOW, employee must differentiate themselves, which means do something a little unconventional and innovative. Once a year, Zappos ask its employee to write what Zappos cultures mean to them and publish them as a “Culture book” which is an employee review of a company and is a great way to communicate with its employee.That book is fantastic read for all MBA students and those who wants to learn how to manage team.

As the author best puts it "This book is not meant to be a comprehensive corporate history of Zappo or any of the previous business I've been involved in. It's also not meant to be a complete autobiography...The purpose of this book is to give some of the highlights of the path that I took in my journey toward discovering how to find happiness in business and in life."The journey Tony takes the readers on is both very educational and exciting. Along the path, he shares great gems of wisdom that he has collected both on from a personal basis and an organizational perspective. These include but are not limited to: management, leadership, following one's passion, relationship building etc. His passion for vision, values and happiness radiates through and is very contagious and inspirational. Having personally experienced Zappos WOW experience, I can truly say that the material preached by the CEO is truly believed in and practiced throughout the organization. A highly recommended book!Below are excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:1- "One of the most interesting things about playing poker was learning the discipline of not confusing the right decision with the individual outcome of any single hand, but that's what a lot of poker players do. If they win a hand, they assume they made the right bet, and if they lose a hand, they often assume they made the wrong bet. With the coin that lands on heads a third of the time, this would be like seeing the coin land on heads once (the individual outcome) and changing your behavior so you bet on heads, when the mathematically correct thing to do is to always bet on tails no matter what happened in the previous coin flip (the right decision)."2- "We learned that we should never outsource our core competency. As an e-commerce company, we should have considered warehousing to be our core competency from the beginning. Outsourcing that to a third party and trusting that they would care about our customers as much as we would was one of our biggest mistakes. If we hadn't reacted quickly, it would have eventually destroyed Zappos."3- "Looking back, a big reason we hit our goal early was that we decided to invest our time, money, and resources into three key areas: customer service (which would build our brand and drive word of mouth), culture (which would lead to the formation of our core values), and employee training and development (which would eventually lead to the creation of our Pipeline Team)."4- "We believe that it's really important to come up with core values that you can commit to. And by commit, we mean that you're willing to hire and fire based on them. If you're willing to do that, then you're well on your way to building a company culture that is in line with the brand you want to build. You can let all of your employees be your brand ambassadors, not just the marketing or PR department. And they can be brand ambassadors both inside and outside the office."5- "The best leaders are those that lead by example and are both team followers as well as team leaders. We believe that in general, the best ideas and decisions are made from the bottom up, meaning by those on the front lines that are closest to the issues and/or the customers. The role of a manager is to remove obstacles and enable his/her direct reports to succeed. This means the best leaders are servant-leaders. They server those they lead."6- "While we celebrate our individual and team successes, we are not arrogant nor do we treat others differently from how we would want to be treated. Instead, we carry ourselves with quiet confidence, because we believe that in the long run our character will speak for itself."7- "Your personal core values define who you are, and a company's core values ultimately define the company's character and brand. For individuals, character is destiny. For ogranizations, culture is destiny."8- "Happiness is really just about four things: perceived control, perceived progress, connectedness (number and depth of your relationships), and vision/meaning (being part of something bigger than yourself)."

Delivering Happiness is probably one of the most popular business books in 2013. I saw people reading it everywhere, especially in the plane. So, I decided to read it and it is pretty good. It is a very easy read with some good points.Delivering Happiness is the story of Tony Hsieh, who is the founder of Zappos and therefore it is also the story of Zappos. The book consists of three parts called 1) Profits, 2) Profits & Passion, and 3) Profits, Passion and Purpose.The first part (Profits) tells the early life of Tony growing up and always trying to make a profit out of everything he did. Most of his attempts as a child and teenager failed miserably, but some of them succeeded. After graduation, he worked a bit for Oracle and started a new dot com company called link exchange. He sold the company for a couple of million to Microsoft and reached his early goal in life and began wondering what he should do next.The second part (Profits & Passion) he decided he likes to build a company and joins Zappos. He is basically the core investor in Zappos and his private money keeps the company alive. At the first years, it wasn't going very well until he changed the direction of the company to expand the choice of shoes. Finally the company took off and became one of the largest eCommerce sites and was eventually sold to Amazon.com. From the outside, Zappos became especially known for its customer service.The last part (Profits, Passion, and Purpose) is a fairly small part where Tony explains how Zappos changes from only focusing on Zappos to a larger purpose of also improving other companies. He researched a bit in "happiness literature" and comes to the conclusion that (unlike his early life focus) money and profits don't make people happy, but the passion and purpose of contributing to the world does. So, he makes creating and delivering happiness a motto for Zappos.The book is a very easy read. It is basically a sort-of autobiography of Tony and Zappos. Because of that, it does explain everything from one perspective, Tonys. Some reviewers complained about that, but then again, what can you expect from an autobiography. This book isn't a research on why Zappos in a successful company but is is Tony Shiehs perspective on why Zappos is an interesting company. And Tony is a pretty good story-teller which makes the book quite engaging and he does introduce some innovations in how companies are run that I loved. For example, offering people a bonus for leaving the company to check their commitment to the company is something I haven't heard done before.The book is a quick read, an interesting story and contains some useful insights. Yet, I wouldn't rate it as a 5 star book either. In the middle of the company, it became a bit too much "promoting Zappos" and the Zappos values (which I understand are important) got repeated a bit too often. Though the company does offer some innovation, it doesn't go as far as for example Richardo Semler with Maverick. So, all in all, a good an easy read. Recommended for in the plane.

Before I say anything about Tony Hsieh's book, "Delivering Happiness," I would first like to thank him and the Delivering Happiness team for selecting me to receive an advanced copy of the book. They actually provided me with two copies of the book - one to read, another to giveaway on my blog. Thanks for including me in your efforts and for allowing me to take part in the pre-release party. On to the review.Business writing is changing and I hope that it doesn't go unnoticed by corporations, authors and publishers. There is a valuable lesson to be learned here. I first noticed it when I read "rework" by Jason Fried And the 37signals team. Delivering Happiness is the second example. What are these authors doing that is so special? They are humanizing business writing and their efforts are redefining what it means to build a successful business.In Delivering Happiness, Tony Hsieh makes it clear that success should no longer defined by the size of your paycheck. It is about living a meaningful life filled with wonderful experiences. This is what truly makes Delivering Happiness a unique book. It is a book that focuses on creating a workplace that people love working in and that is focused on the long term development of all its team members.It is probably worth saying that I have been a fan of the company for some time now and I have bought a few shoes, books and other merchandise from them. I have experienced their amazing level of service as a customer first hand. Reading about all of their efforts behind the scene makes for a great read.The first two sections of the book focus on Tony's life - from his childhood and time spent in college to his time building LinkShare and then Zappos. I've heard bits and pieces of the Zappo's story, however, I was unaware of the major sacrifices that the company's entire team endured to make their dream a reality. In addition to the history lessons, the first two sections are jam packet with actionable ideas that could help any business prosper.Overall, Delivering Happiness is an outstanding book and it deserves to be read by entrepreneurs, c-suite staff, marketers, and anyone that is interested in living a life that is filled with meaning and happiness.This book is unlike any other business book I have ever read. I went into it thinking that it might focus on the company's history and best practices. Instead, it was a collective history of Tony and his experience in business. The book truly reflects the values that he and the Zappo's team live every day.About 200 pages into the book, Tony turns the tables on the reader and asks a couple simple questions: What makes you happy and how do you want to live the rest of your life? He then dives right into talking about the research he has done on happiness and how it can impact the reader's life.Think about what Tony is doing here. He leads a company that is in the process of changing our other companies do business, both with their team members and customer. In "Delivering Happiness" Tony makes matters a little more personal by reaching out to his readers and trying to impact their lives in a positive manner.I love this approach and I must say that Tony has had an impact on at least on of his readers - me. Thanks for sharing your life experiences, insights and values with all of us.

First of all, I want to say that I am currently a student at the University of Baltimore, I am enrolled in the survey entrepreneurship course and this specific book was my recommended reading during the 2015 Fall semester.This book is very interesting because it shows people how to build and manage a successful business in a rather unusual way. Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, basically explain that having a great employer/employee relationship is key to successful business. It is how he gets and maintains this relationship where it gets “weird” and unusual. In this book, he shares that he personally hangs out with his employees outside of the office, he is throwing parties for them, he is drinking with them and so on. Surprisingly, it works. The result is that employees are more productive, especially in delivering great customer service (Zappos is well known for great customer service and they take pride in that). For the company, customer satisfaction is not the task for one specific department; the whole company gets involved and makes sure that satisfaction is delivered.What I especially liked about this book is that it made me think outside of the box. It made think about all the different possibilities on how to begin, manage and maintain (especially talking about startup businesses). What Tony did is absolutely brilliant and although it may not work with every business cases, it is a good example on how to work differently and still get great result.I understand that this book also include an little bit of autobiography but as the reader, I think there is few unwanted details that can confuse other readers because it tends to get out of topic.Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and I really recommend this book to people who want to get some inspiration. I especially recommend other student just like me to read it as well because it can be helpful in future projects.

I had heard of Tony ( And Zappos-As a Customer) over the years and may have even waited on him during my many Years working in one of Las Vegas'Posh High End Resturants as a Waiter! A little under two years ago I was fortunate enough to take the Tour of the Zappo's Facility in Henderson, Nevada. During my tour of Zappo's I experienced first hand the culture of the company, the employees were happy, helpful and jovial. The energy of the environment was contagious, it just seemed to have this overall good feeling, and it oozed that everyone employee there really wanted to be there. Every single interaction that I encountered was positive and helpful, especially upon my exit when I was allowed to take more than one book which I will expand on in just a minute. As for the book, in my honest and humble opinion its a must read for anyone who is either starting a company or looking to expand and grow their current company. At certain points in the book I could feel my heart race with worry, Are they going to make it, will they fail or will they finally decide to just quit and eliminate all the down side risk? The book is an honest inside perspective to all the trial and tribulations that Tony and the entire Zappo's team went through over the years! And the best part is, well just read the book, because I don't want to spoil it for you the reader! Its well worth the investment of money and time. As I mentioned I was lucky enough to take the tour of the Zappo's company, Which I LOVED, I wanted to take a second tour from a sheer education stand point, my tour guide obviously watched me take notes and ask lots of questions throughout my time with her on the tour, so much to my advantage when the tour concluded and I was in the Zappo's Library ( like a Kid in a Candy Store)perusing all the great book titles, the Guide allowed me to have a second book to take home and enjoy! The Zappo's Company over delivered to me as a customer, client and business owner, therefore I safely and proudly endorse Tony Hsieh and Delivering Happiness! Happy ReadingMartin J. FischerAuthor, Founder and Creator[...]

Living in Australia, and having heard a number of inspiring stories about Zappos over the years, I bought the book to learn more about their incredible story.I struggled to get through the first half of the book. In Tony Hsieh, I couldn’t relate to someone who chose to spend part of his upbringing as a professional poker player in Las Vegas.The book became meaningful to me when Tony explains how their culture was fostered and how they developed their 10 core values. This was not done by the founders but by involving every member of their team in a process that took more than 12 months. He then explains in detail how they live their values and the effect this has had on team members inside and outside of work.Two other gems for me were:1. Tony Hsieh emphasises that the telephone is the real relationship building tool at Zappos. Most unusual for an internet company and a very different approach to their parent company, Amazon.2. When employees log on to their computer a photo of a randomly selected employee appears on the screen. They are given a multiple choice test to name the employee. Afterwards the profile and bio of that employee is shown. What a great way of reducing silos in a growing company.Tony Hsieh did not use a ghost writer for this book which I reckon was a mistake. However, because of the insights mentioned above and the depth of his explanation about the development and evolution of their culture at Zappos, it still proved to be a worthwhile read with useful insights.

Delivering Happiness, the new book by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, goes immediately onto my list of must read books. I had already recommended it to several people before I even finished it. While the book wasn't exactly what I was expecting, that's just fine by me. I thought this might be a how to provide better customer service book. And while that might have been fine, what Tony created was something much better and much bigger. Just as Zappos is a superior customer service experience generator that happens to sell shoes, this is a happiness generator that happens to be a book.Maybe it's the transparent way he treats both his personal and professional triumphs and failures (sorry about that worm farm dude) or the similar personality traits I share with him, but I felt a connection while reading the book. I believed I was part of one of Tony's tribes, or at least I'd really like to be. See I'm already on a first name basis with him, I hope he doesn't mind. ;) I like being around positive people who thrive on continually learning and questioning things and trying new things, new ways. Like Tony, I don't mind making mistakes as long as I learn from them.The book is refreshingly humble, conversational, reflective and open. We get a glimpse into his early years and how he became the man he is today. From the beginning he was an unconventional thinker, willing to take calculated risks. He was thinking outside the box long before shoe boxes became his focus. He recounts a Shakespeare class in which he fulfilled a sonnet assignment (14 lines of iambic pentameter) with lines of Morse code. Luckily the teacher had a sense of humor. Tony was creating fun in a productive way, a trait that would carry through to his professional life. Fun is essential to building community. Laughing bonds people is a way that few other activities can. So don't mistake people having fun at work with a lack of focus, productivity or seriousness.Similarly, don't discount the importance of play. Much can be learned from games, as Tony learned at the poker tables. While you'll have to read the entire list for yourself, there's a lot of solid advice including: "It's okay to switch tables if you discover it's too hard to win at your table." By staying flexible and being willing to adapt you will have much more success. He also uses poker as an excellent metaphor, distinguishing between short (tactical choices and events such as the loss of a single hand) and long term thinking (focusing on strategic choices).Finally, this book lets us in on the core values of a great company. You many not be able to go to Las Vegas and go on a tour of Zappos but you'll feel like you did. Tony's success arises not from his desire to make money but to find projects that would keep him emotionally engaged and, even more importantly, to create a community and culture. A friend of mine told me years ago, "do what you love and the money will follow." If ever I doubted the validity of that statement, Tony is the poster child for following your passions and convictions. His desire to connect with people blurs the lines between business and pleasure. You can hear his excitement when he talks about fighting over the dinner check with vendors and it's 100% believable when he talks about the employees of Zappos being a family.This book doesn't seek to tell anyone how to run their business but it does encourage people to ask questions about how and why they do this things they do. Tony is clear that he doesn't think every company should follow the same core values as Zappos but should stay true to the values that work for them. And he encourages each of us to make small changes personally and professionally on an ongoing basis to grow and improve.Toward the end of the book Tony says that he wrote the book "to contribute to a happiness movement to help make the world a better place." I'd have to say, this is another thing he can check off of his to do list. He has proven that there is a different way to succeed in business and in life. Choose happiness.(I previously posted this review on my personal blog at [...])

This book is an excellent tool for those who focus obsessively on people's happiness. Apart from making profits, the author of the book and owner of Zappos, focuses consistently in making people happy in many different ways. By people, he means not just employees and people in the company but also customers, vendors, affiliates and everyone collaborating with the company. A CEO who says that customer service should NOT be just a department but the entire company speaks by itself.As a business owner, his ultimate goal is to make people, culture and society happy, far beyond just making profits. This is the reason why the company flourished after some uncertain times. Their marriage with Amazon comes as a consequence of both companies being aligned in values and being both long-term thinkers. They both focuses on win-win scenarios at all times.It is a brilliant lecture for those businesses and people whose ultimate goals in business and life is to add value to society by doing good, those types of things that people will remember in time.

急成長を遂げたアメリカの靴のネット販売業者'Zappos'のCEOであるTony Hsieh氏が、今日の成功までの道のりを書いた本です。Tony Hsieh氏のこれまでの人生は山あり谷ありで、とても興味深く、一気に読むことができました。単語もそれほど難しくはなかったので、洋書にしてはめずらしく、一週間弱で読み終えてしまいました。Tony Hsiehの経営は、常識に囚われない、かなり型破りな方法をとっています。企業文化をとても大切にし、従業員にはその企業文化を体現し、そのことを通じて自己成長することまで求めています。'Zappos'の企業文化を形作るものとして１０個の'core values'を定めているのですが、なかなか興味深いです。1.Deliver WOW Through Service2.Embrace and Drive Change3.Create Fun and A Little Weirdness4.Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded5.Pursue Growth and Learning6.Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication7.Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit8.Do More With Less9.Be Passionate and Determined10.Be Humbleそして、究極的には、Zappos is about delivering happiness to the world.とのことです。共感できる'value'（1,3,4,6,7,10）もあれば、耳の痛い'value'（2,5,8,9）もありました。７つめの'value'なんかは、昔の日本企業の価値観に近いものがあるような気がしました。いずれにせよ、このような価値観を従業員が本当に実践し、それによって会社が成長していっているのはすごいことだ、と心から思えました。まだ１０年そこそこの会社ですが、この先どう発展していくか面白そうです！

One real good book I have read in a long time. It is an honest account written amazingly well. I couldn't leave it before it was finished.. It's also a sort of coaching manual for all entrepreneurs.. The book is as much a motivational account about maintaining conviction in yourself to as much it is a guide on how to build a team - importance of having people in the team who believe in the idea and purpose, building an organization culture and maintaining it, importance of transparency in keeping the team together and about sharing the pains & gains.. The book's title is delivering happiness, but if you are looking to purchase it hoping to find a solution to happiness, then I don't think this really is that although it delves on that in the last chapter. But if you want to read a book about an entrepreneur's account of going through success, despair and success in creating a business that brings to life the concepts of mission, vision, values and culture then this is it..

Dieses Buch liest sich unglaublich leicht und ist gleichzeitig inhaltlich fundiert und ergiebig.Anschaulich beschreibt Tony Hsieh, wie er Schritt für Schritt in die Führung dieses Unternehmens geht. Es wird nachvollziehbar, was ihn an die Idee und an die Entrepreneure der ersten Stunde glauben lässt. Und mit welchen Mühen ein beständig liquides Unternehmen schrittweise Realität werden konnte.Sehr gut finde ich auch die immer wieder deutlich skizzierte Unternehmenskultur, die er selbst als schräg bezeichnet und die den KundInnnen zB auch bei Telefonaten mit dem Support hautnah begegnet. Nicht nur der "service extraordinaire" sondern auch die Kreativität bis in die kleinsten Handgriffe sind einfach schön - und menschlich.Durch Six Sigma und ISO wohl nicht erreichbar, das macht hier den Unterschied - wie gehen wir mit MitarbeiterInnen, BewerberInnen, KundInnen, ja auch LieferantInnen um?Endend mit einem Exkurs in die Glückspsychologie - ein wirklich empfehlenswertes Management-Buch, das auch als Urlaubslektüre gut geeignet ist.Enjoy!

An inspiring book gives you insights of not only how company culture can cultivate the growth of its employees and business but also to create a healthy partner ecosystem between vendors and investors.