...Strayer University Brickell, FL Campus Assignment for Course: | ZAPPO Corporate Culture | Submitted to: | Dr. Eleanor Marschke | | | | | Date of Submission: 10/23/13 | Maria L Delgado | SU200046104 | Mayito259@yahoo.com | 1900 N. Bayshore Drive #2007 Miami, Fl 33132 | 786-333-8222 | | Title of Assignment: | | CERTIFICATION OF AUTHORSHIP: I certify that I am the author of this paper and that any assistance I received in its preparation is fully acknowledged and disclosed in this paper. I have also cited any sources from which I used data, ideas or words, either quoted directly or paraphrased. I have added quotes whenever I used more than three consecutive words from another writer. I also certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for this course. ------------------------------------------------- Student’s Signature: ______________________________ ------------------------------------------------- Instructor’s Grade on Assignment: Instructor’s Comments: Zappos Organization description Zappos can be described as an unconventional organization for its nature of being one of the most transformational business success stories of our time. It is an internet company that began by offering shoes online and went from virtually no sales to $1 billion in annual gross merchandise sales over a 10 year period, despite minimal advertising. Company offers...
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...Zappos is an online retailer that specializes in footwear and clothing, but sells merchandise ranging from cutlery sets to bedding. Its mission is to have the best selection of merchandise and the best customer service possible. Founded in 1999 by Nicholas Swinmurn, Zappos has transformed from a pipe dream project with headquarters set up in a cramped apartment to a multi-million dollar company that debuted on Fortune Magazine’s list “ The 100 Best Companies to Work for” at number 27, the highest place a company has ever debuted. [10] With headquarters now set up in Henderson, Nevada and a distribution center next door to the UPS world hub in Shepardsville, Kentucky, Zappos has not let this success go to its head but instead has strived to make itself the best company in its field as well as the best company to work for. Behind this unrelenting drive for success is Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. After investing money into the startup of Shoesite.com, Hsieh became co-chief executive officer beside Swinmurn in 2000. [4] Since then, Hsieh has been focused on creating the perfect work environment that will foster a group of employees that can not only make decisions independently, but also enjoy coming to work. In order to do this, Hsieh created the 10 Core Values of Zappos. [12] This list includes: * Deliver WOW through service * Embrace and drive change * Create fun and a little weirdness * Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded * Pursue growth and learning ...
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...1. Find a list of all 10 of Zappos corporate values. Pick two of the values and explain how you think those values would influence the way employees do their work. A. Zappos list of 10 corporate values are: Deliver WOW Through Service, Embrace and Drive Change, Create Fun and A Little Weirdness, Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded, Pursue Growth and Learning, Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication, Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit, Do More with Less, Be Passionate and Determined, and Be Humble. If I had to pick two values from that list they would be Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit and also Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication. I believe that these two values would have the biggest impact in developing an organizations culture. Organizational culture has been described as the shared values, principles, traditions, and ways of doing things that influence the way organizational members act and that distinguish the organization from other organizations. Organizational culture has many characteristics but the book uses 3 particular words to define culture: Perception, Descriptive, and Shared. An organizations culture cannot be physically touched or seen, the organization is concerned with how members perceive the culture and how the describe it and finally individuals with different backgrounds or work at different levels of the organization can describe the culture of the organization in similar terms. When the key values...
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...Introduction Founded in 1999, Zappos.com has quickly grown, increasing from almost nothing in gross merchandise sales in 1999 to over $1 billion in 2008. This fast growth is due to their focus on providing the absolute best service and the absolute best shopping experience. The Zappos family currently staffs over 2,050 people. Their fulfillment center stocks more than 3 million shoes from over 1,136 brands, and it is complemented by a 24/7 customer service center located at the headquarters in Henderson, Nevada. Zappos offers free shipping on both orders and returns and a 365-day return policy. Clearly, their customer-first approach is working, since 75% of their customers are repeat buyers. Zappos’s Background In 1999, Zappos founder Nick Swinmurn approached Tony Hsieh and Alfred Lin with the idea of selling shoes online. At that time, Tony Hsieh was running an investment company funded from selling his previous company, Link Exchange. Link Exchange was founded by Tony Hsieh and Sanjay Madan in 1996, one year after both graduated from Harvard. Microsoft acquired Link Exchange for $265 million in November 1998. After Link Exchange was sold to Microsoft, Tony Hsieh and his old friend from Harvard, Alfred Lin, founded the venture capital company Venture Frogs. Through Venture Frogs, located in San Francisco, they started 27 companies, which were offered space in Hsieh and Lin’s 15,000 square feet of rented office space. In 1999, Hsieh received a voice message from Nick...
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...Zappo is a prime example of a company with a healthy and creative corporate culture. Zappos culture is defined by its ten core values. These core values are passionately encouraged throughout the organisation starting at the recruitment process. All candidates have to pass a cultural fit test before getting an interview (Burkus 2011). This is designed to prevent people that don’t fit into the culture from entering the organisation before an interview is even offered. At the interview, there is a question for each and every one for the core values (Perschel 2010). Zappo invests a great amount of resources into their workforce in order to maintain a high standard of performance in every employee (O‘Brien 2009). The extremes that Zappo will go to uphold its beliefs and behaviours was demonstrated in 2010 when a computer glitch appeared on their website which reset every product to $49.95. Zappo later announced all transactions would be honoured, costing them $1.6 million (Albanesius 2010). However it would serve as another example of how Zappo stay true to their culture and core values. This story was reported in the media worldwide, illustrating how a strong corporate culture can easily lead to a strong, positive image of an organisation. It is clear to see executives of Zappo have a deep understanding of organisational behaviour that has allowed them to create a strong corporate culture which in turn has had a positive effect on all aspects of the business, particularly customer...
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...Christa Foley: Recruiting outside the box at Zappos Zappos is a privately held online retailer with an extensive product category mainly including footwear, watches, apparel and handbags. Their Headquarters is located in Las Vegas, Nevada, and it primarily operates in the US with about 1,300 employees and revenues mounting to $2,158 million in 2011. And also this company spends over $350 million to develop the entire neighborhood so employees will have access to great places to live and socialize too. Thanks to its strength in offering an outstanding customer shopping experience and strong corporate cultures and values related to customer service; it is one of the largest online shoe retailer with a positive growth outlook. Zappos launched in 1999, there was a great deal of reluctance about the notion of selling shoes online. The exclusive selling propositions of this company included: the ability to buy from a much larger selection of sizes, styles and colors than in brick and mortar stores; the ability to receive overnight shipping for free; the provision of detailed information and visual access to the shoes; and the “WOW” experience of a customer service call center whose passionate employees were trained to go above and beyond. Would you consider working for Zappos? Why or why not? After I read the article and did further research on Zappos, definitely I will like to work with a company like this that is focuses on identify the right fit of their employees. I like their...
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...Case Zappos Developing a Supply Chain to Deliver WOW! Core Competencies Zappos is a prime example of a company’s end products (the goods sold) not corresponding to their core product (the delivery service). While in theory being a retailer, Zappos sees itself as a service provider. Their core competencies lie in their customer service system (i.e. free calls), their straightforward and useful web interface, their excellent supply chain structure and the extensive return policy. In the following I would like to further explain two of them. Customer Service Zappos prioritises customer service in their business model. A lot of effort is put into finding, hiring and training the right people for their free call centres. These employees then help create an emotional impact with their customers. In order to be able to cultivate the reputation of the brand Zappos they are equipped with a great amount of freedom and a wide array of measures to help their costumers resolve problems. The revolutionary aspect of Zappos call centre? Efficiency does not matter. The focus lies on creating an extraordinary, memorable experience by engaging with people. This powerful marketing tool drives sales and makes customers return. Warehouse System When Zappos started acquiring inventory and managing their own warehouse they were faced with additional costs and challenges. They overcame these by introducing an unconventional warehouse system. A robotic system with movable shelves was put into place...
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...got his start as the co-founder of LinkExchange, an online adverting company. At the age of 24 he sold LinkExchange, to Microsoft for $265 million (Chafkin, 2006). After the sale of LinkExchange, Tony Hsieh founded Venture Frog, an investment fund, of which Zappos an on-line footwear retailer was one of the first investments ("Venture Frogs," 2013). In 2009, Zappos join the Amazon, Inc. family, where Tony Hsieh remained as CEO ("In The Beginning - Let There Be Shoes," n.d.). We focus on making sure we have a great service-focused culture. If you get the culture right, then a lot of really amazing things happen on their own (Hsieh, 2010). Under his leadership, Zappos has grown gross merchandise sales form $1.6M in 2000 to over $1 billion in 2008 by focusing relentlessly on customer service (http://www.zapposinsights.com/). 2. Analyze the CEO’s leadership style and philosophy, and how the CEO’s leadership style aligns with the culture. Tony Hsieh has a transformational leadership style because he is charisma, inspiration, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration for the employees of Zappos (Schermerhorn, Osborn, Uhl-Bien, & Hunt, 2012). Tony Hsieh focuses on developing a corporate culture that puts customers first, and empowers employees to deliver products and services in a way that makes them feel good about what they do (Rosenbaum, 2010). Tony Hsieh's philosophy is “Employees happiness is a natural-by product that leads to profits, passion,...
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...Introduction II. Management III. Zappos organization Structure IV. Zappos Business Model V. Corporate Culture Introduction Zappos is an online shop that specializes in selling various shoes and clothing. The company was started in 199 by Nick Swinmum and is currently based in Las Vegas. The business was taken over in year 2009 by amazon.com in a lucrative deal of more than $ 1.2 billion. Zappos.com offer a great range of products including handbags, baby products, watches, shoes, sporting goods, jewelries and housewares (Staley, 2013). Since its start, the business has grown tremendous and currently it is the largest online shoe store in America. Management The company is headed by Tony Hsieh, who’s the chief executive officer. Tony Hsieh is a highly skilled person whose passion for business and personal satisfaction saw him start several business ventures, most of which did not turn out to be profitable. Mr. Tony Hsieh believes that for a company to be successes, proper environmental conditions and remuneration of employees are very important. It should be known that more than 75% of Zappos clients are returning customers hence the manner in which clients are served in zapo is of very high standard. Tony Hsieh believes in hiring people who have a personal touch with the business and himself. He can know the employee’s behavior, skills and other hidden talents that can benefit the company. Zappos organization Structure Zappos Online Company has an environment...
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...Zappos Katrina E. Johnson MGT 4800 Thursday May 10th 2012 Linda Mohr Abstract Zappos.com is an online clothing and shoe store. Zippos’ was founded in 1999 and has grown to be the largest worldwide. The CEO Tony Hseih’ leadership has brought Zippos to a level of rapid growth in less than 10 years. He is innovative with his use of relationship marketing. Hseih believes strongly in diversity, ethics, character, and personality within the workplace. Hseih has a clear understand of the use of technology, social networking, and its value within the market place. Tony Hseih use of growing strategy is pivotal in his success. Zappos The original founder of Zippos is Nick Swinmurn. Swinmurn was out shopping one day in the San Francisco area and could not find what he needed. The very same day Swinmurn went to his small home and has an idea for an online shoe retailer. In 1999, the dotcom boom was on the up rise and Swinmurn site was one of the hundred upstarts. Although, most of the dotcom boom went broke, Zappos was experiencing and exponential rise to success. In 2008 Zappos reached $1billion in annual sales and made, it to the coveted listed of the Fortune Magazine’s list of best companies to work for and that same year reached its 10th anniversary. In December 1999, Swinmurn and a few of his partners realized they had used up their investors seed money and were nowhere near close to realizing a profit. One evening the group met at a bar for drinks to commiserate...
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...Anthony Rochester BU105 Anita Desuoza A Two case Applications 11/22/15 Miller-Motte College Online Two Case Applications Anthony Rochester 11/22/15 Anita desouza 1.Describe the findings of Project Oxygen using the functions approach, Mintzberg's roles approach, and the skills approach. I feel the function approach is one of the methods used in classification of activities that occur in marketing processes by breaking down the processes into functions. A marketing function is defined as a major specialized activity performed in accomplishing the marketing process, buying function, transportation function, processing function, storage function and selling function. Mintzberg approach contains figurehead, leader, liaison, disseminator, spokesperson, entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator. 2.Are you surprised at what Google found out about "building a better boss?" No I am not surprised, the project teams gathered more than 10,000 observations, from various performance reviews, feedback surveys and other reports. I think that managers can go by these rules to be a better boss. 3.What's the difference between encouraging managers to be great managers and knowing what being a great manager involves? Employee recognition for good performance is one of the simplest and easiest ways to encourage people to do their best work. Three...
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...The human resource activities of Zappos Introduction Zappos, which is an online shoe retailer, was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn. Now it becomes a famous brand in US which have 10 sub-companies in 2011. This company cannot create such a great success without its excellent customer service and human resource management. This essay will state that the influences of environment on the strategy, HR planning and implementation of Zappos firstly. Then it will argue the relevance between HR practices at Zappos and the human resource management. At last, it will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Zappos practices and how to promote these practices. Strategy, HR planning and implementation Environment is an important element to help companies making their strategies. Strategy is a function and framework of companies’ actions in the future. The appropriate strategies setting can decide the success of the companies’ operation. So the companies usually base on their strengths, weaknesses and the different situations of external environment to make suitable strategies to achieve their goals in the operation periods. With the information technology developing, the online shopping becomes an important area for the retail market. According to Demangeot and Broderick (2010, 117), the online retailer already occupies almost 50% market of the sale industry. Nick Swinmurn foresaw this situation so he founded the Zappos as an online shoe retailer. Sometimes, the external environment...
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...nineties in Las Vegas, Nevada. Specifically, they sell purses, clothes, jewelry and eyewear. The name, Zappos, comes from the word zapatos, which means shoes in Spanish. Since its inception and through its acquirement by Amazon.com in 2009, Zappos has become the world-leader in on-line shoe sales. (Crunchbase) The company’s Chief Executive Officer is Tony Hsieh. The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Hsieh was born in Illinois, raised in California and graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science in 1995. Dissatisfied working in corporate America for software giant, Oracle, Hsieh left his employment after only several months. He started his own business, an internet advertising company, and became a venture capitalist. In 1998, at the age of 24, Hsieh sold that internet start-up company, LinkExchange, instantly making him a millionaire. He then invested heavily in Zappos. In addition to investing in Zappos, he also worked for the company as a consultant. (businessider) By the year 2000, Hsieh was CEO of the Zappos and maintains that position today. #2) Analyze the CEO’s leadership style and philosophy and how the CEO’s leadership style aligns with the culture. Tony Hsieh has a casual leadership style. He left Oracle because he was not happy or comfortable with traditional corporate culture. He brought that casual leadership style to Zappos. His management technique and viewpoint is built on the notion of allowing employees to do what they are...
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...Berggren 11/2/15 Zappos Case Study: Happiness and Company Culture To Zappos, service is not just a value held on the corporate plaque or something they like to talk about. At Zappos, delivering exceptional service is a way of life. Zappos is a large online clothing and shoe shop who has made service, not shoes, their business. In 2009 Zappos was acquired by Amazon for an all-stock deal, valued at $1.2 Billion. While many factors contributed to the success of Zappos, the biggest contributors were the leaders, Tony Hsieh and Alfred Lin. Hsieh and Lin understood that the happiness of their employees, partners, and customers was key to Zappos business. Everyone inside Zappos, knew the link between the culture of happiness and the positive performance, attributed to the success of the company. Since the creation of Zappos in 1999, the Zappos brand has upheld its “wow” customer service positioning and a distinct corporate culture. At the time there was no other big online footwear retailers, so Nick Swinmurn, founder and CEO of Zappos, created an online footwear site, containing many varieties of shoes in different colors, styles and sizes. At the time there were not a lot of online shoe retailers, so they were primarily competing with brick and mortar shoe stores. Initially, Zappos received inventory through independent shoe stores but by 2000, they had secured relationships with the shoe manufacturers themselves and were able to offer over 100 brands. In a year, Zappos began offering...
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...Zappos Zappos was founded by Nick Swinmurn in 1999. Zappos was born out of a desire to be able to have the right shoes, the right color and right size readily available when customers wanted them. The idea behind Zappos was to have a web site where customers could go to find their perfect shoes, one that was both affordable and stylish. Over the years Zappos has evolved into a company that provides the best online service, not just in shoes but in any category (Zappos Family Story: In the beginning let there be shoes, 2014). Zappos Culture Culture cannot be generalized across organizations, but must be viewed in context of the particular organization. This is due to shared and multiple meanings emerging in relation to the particular group of people and to the mission, vision statements, and their values (Cunliffe, 2008). Zappos culture is one in which customer service and satisfaction and employee empowerment is at the heart of what they do. The culture at Zappos is an extension of their core values, which include a mandate to deliver WOW through service, build a positve team and family spirit and a open and honest relationship through communication. Also included in their values is being passionate, deteremined, adventurous, creative and open-minded. Zappos culture takes into consideration not just their customers but also their employees. They realize the importance of building the character of their employees in order to meet the challenges they will face...
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