...organization you chose to research. Zappos is an online shoe retailer that is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada, it was founded in 1999 and has sold millions of dollars in shoes and other items such as clothing, purses, electronics, housewares and jewelry. Today Zappos employs over 1500 employees and since inception has sold over 10 million customers and as of 2008 had more than $1 billion in sales. Zappos has over one hundred thousand followers on twitter and 9000 Facebook followers making it a very popular company. The company believes in customer service and was “ranked by Fortune magazine in 2013 as one of the top 100 companies to work for” (2013). 2. Examine the culture of the organization. After examining the culture of Zappos, I found that it is a customer service based culture. The company believes in the customer and the CEO Tony Heish fills “at Zappos our higher purpose is delivering happiness” (2009). The CEO is dedicated to the company as well as spreading his message; he engages all employees in five weeks of training as well as offers other companies the opportunity to learn from his successes. 3. Explain how you determined that the selected organization showed the signs of the culture that you identified. The Zappos culture was easily identified by all the articles, the customer feedbacks and blogs, as well as employee testimonials. They pride themselves on customer satisfaction and feel they deliver “happiness in a box” (2009) as described by a...
Words: 685 - Pages: 3
...corporate environment and quit to found Link Exchange. In 1996, Hsieh started developing the idea for an advertising network called LinkExchange, members were allowed to advertise their site over LinkExchange's network by displaying banner ads on their website. They launched in March 1996, with Hsieh as CEO and found their first 30 clients by direct emailing webmasters. In 1999 Hsieh sold LinkExchange to Microsoft for $265 million. After selling LinkExchange to Microsoft, Hsieh co-founded Venture Frogs, an incubator and investment firm, with his partner. In 1999 Hsieh was approached with an idea of selling shoes online. After some skepticism Hsieh and Lin his business partner invested through Venture Frog and two months later Hsieh joined Zappos and he is now the CEO of the online shoe and clothing store Zappos.com. (www.deliveringhappiness.com/about-us-the-author). In today’s business environment there are many types of organizations and leaders who run them. Great leaders help shape and grow the company. A great leader depends on the characteristics of their own personality. Tony Hsieh leadership style and philosophy embodies the perfect balance between personal humility and professional will. He has a ferocious resolve to do whatever it takes to...
Words: 1594 - Pages: 7
...1.0 Introduction Zappos, founded in 1999, is an online shoe, apparel and electronics retailer, specializing foremost in customer service. In 2008, Zappos reached $1billion in annual sales, the following year Zappos was acquired by Amazon in a deal valued over $1.2 billion (Hsieh, 2010). Despite the qualms from consumers about the effect the acquisition would have on the intimacy of Zappos’ customer service, it is still Zappos’ customer service model and attention to relationship management that sets Zappos aside from its competitors today. 2.0 Zappos’ Value proposition: 2.1 Target Market Zappos’ primary target market is online shoppers in the United States of America, in particular, educated women between the ages of 25 and 49 years of age who are most likely married with children seeking a convenient shopping experience with a trustworthy and reliable company (Dilworth, 2010). 2.2 Sources of Value Creation Figure 1. Sources of benefits (McLeod, 2014, lecture 1:pg. 31) Value is created at Zappos through increased benefits and reduced costs, see figure 1. The first benefit provided by Zappos is the multiple product lines available for purchase. Further to this, Zappos offers specialty brands and sizes that cater for more specialized individual needs, such as ‘women’s size 15 and men’s sextuple-E widths’ (Jacobs, 2009, p.70). Additionally, if Zappos does not have a requested product in stock, it is custom for the customer service team to direct customers to...
Words: 1160 - Pages: 5
...HOLACRACY AND THE ZAPPOS INC. BUSINESS MODEL Brenden Rush Rel 342 Excursus February 23, 2016 HOLACRACY AND THE ZAPPOS INC. BUSINESS MODEL Every business uses a model. Some have a loose business model where everyone kind of goes with the flow while others are more regimented. Some copy business models from competitors and some are innovators, developing their own business model from the ground up. There is no wrong or right way to run a business. Whatever works for the organization, its employees, customers, owners and stake holders is the business model a company should employ. However, there are some business models that are so unique and different to the landscape that they deserve an in depth look. E-commerce has become such a huge piece of the life we live today in the 21st century. From Google to Amazon, Wayfair to Overstock, buying and selling on the internet has become as much of our shopping experience as walking the local shopping mall or more. Even the traditional brick and mortar stores from Wal-Mart to JcPenney have renewed their focus to the selling of merchandise online. Though online retail has taken its place in our culture as much as physical store fronts, it still presents the same challenges that traditional retail stores have faced for the last 100-plus years. How do you guarantee the best customer service experience for your customers? How do you ensure employee happiness is at its most optimal level throughout the company? How do you retain market share...
Words: 1819 - Pages: 8
...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...
Words: 2110 - Pages: 9
...Swinmurn founded the online shoe retailer Zappos.com. Zappos was created when Swinmurn was walking around in a San Francisco mall looking for a pair of shoes. One store had the right style, but not the right color another store had the right color but not the right size. Nick left the mall empty-handed and frustrated. Nick decided to quit his day job and start an online shoe retailer, and Zappos began (Zappos.com). Additional investment became necessary for the success of the business after it was already started. Swinmurn teamed up with investor Tony Hsieh, later naming him the CEO of Zappos. Zappos’ started making money after committing its business to customer service. Swinmurn and Hsieh built a successful company with a new culture. This new culture has been preserved by Zappos’ new owner, Amazon.com, which acquired Zappos in a $1.2 billion deal. Zappos’vision states one day at 30% of all retail transaction in the U.S. will be online, people will buy from that company with the best service and best selection, and Zappos.com will be that online store (Zappos.com). This paper will examine the culture of Zappos.com, determine how Zappos showed the signs of culture, the factors that demonstrated the culture, the type of leader that would be best suited for the company culture, and the culture change needed to if there was a decline in the sales. Zappos’ has branded their culture as the value of happiness. Zappos’ provides happiness to happy employees and happy customers. CEO Tony...
Words: 2229 - Pages: 9
...the same coin. This analysis will take a deeper look at Zappos company culture and discuss how this culture transmitted and influenced its employees to maximize the productivity, and how to maintain that culture to create more revenue. Signals from Zappos: Helping new employees socialize into the culture At Zappos, it has special terminal and instrumental values based on their 10 core values. These values control the whole organizational members interaction with each other and also with the customers outside the company. The culture affects its organizational behavior significantly. Zappos applies these values to select candidate, training new hires in order to find the fit ones to grow and thrive. Zappos emphasizes their value “Create fun and a little weirdness” and “be adventurous, creative and open-minded” by the hiring process during their hiring and training process thoroughly. Zappos leadership masters how to use the instrumental value convert to the terminal value. Within Zappos, they are looking for team players, and the employees are encouraged to make friends at work（a desired mode of behavior) . Friends in workplace and fun working atmosphere can create a positive influence, thus employees will initially bring the happy to their customers, and attract more repeat customers (a desired end outcome). Zappos utilizes the instrumental value help their organization to achieve its terminal goals. At Zappos, culture is transmitted to its members by means of socialization...
Words: 2051 - Pages: 9
...Acquisitions | Acquisition Case Study: Amazon’s acquisition of Zappos, November 2009 | | Stephen Greening | 26/04/2014 | WORD COUNT: 2489 Contents Executive Summary 3 Introduction 4 Amazon Overview 4 Amazon’s Previous Acquisitions 5 Zappos Overview 6 Acquisition of Zappos 9 Strategy 11 Why Amazon wanted to acquire Zappos 11 Regulation 14 Valuation 15 Comparable Company Analysis (Comps) 15 Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Analysis 16 Precedent Transactions Analysis 16 Historical Stock Price & Next Twelve Months (NTM) Analysis 17 Financing 19 Defence Tactics 21 Implementation 23 Risk 25 Conclusion 26 References 27 Books 27 eBooks 27 Journals 27 Online Images 27 Presentation 28 Reports 28 Websites 28 Executive Summary In November 2009, ‘Amazon, Inc.’ (Amazon) completed the acquisition of ‘Zappos.com, Inc.’ (Zappos) in a deal worth around $1.2 billion. Amazon announced in July 2009, that it had reached a deal to acquire Zappos in a deal worth $847 million. The deal was financed by 10 million shares of Amazon common stock (worth around $807 million) and $40 million of Cash and Restricted Stock units on the balance sheet. Amazon is an American international electronic commerce (e-commerce) company, while Zappos is an online shoe and clothing shop. The acquisition of Zappos by Amazon was a friendly takeover; the public announcement, negotiation and acceptance of...
Words: 5104 - Pages: 21
...organization successful and also help as an aide to its country through bad times. If leadership is not effective amongst organizations, then conflict is possible to occur and companies can eventually lose direction of their goals. Companies without proper leadership may not be able to last long ultimately. Leadership in the 21st century has presented many new opportunities and challenges for those who are in leadership positions and employees as well. Leaders need to be up to date with information almost daily, need to be flexible, be tolerant, and also be able to think quickly. It is also important that leaders are able establish long-term relationships, take risks, motivate, and be willing to address global issues that are occurring. Zappos Chief Executive Officer, Tony Hsieh demonstrates amazing leadership qualities that may leaders and upcoming entrepreneurs admire and look up. Hsieh was born on December 12th, 1973, in the state of Illinois and was then raised in the state of California growing up. In 1995, Hsieh received his Bachelors degree from Harvard University, majoring in Computer Science. During his collegiate career at Harvard, Hsieh began his time into focusing on his studies, while also having his own pizzeria, in which he ran out of his dorm room. When he...
Words: 2079 - Pages: 9
... Term Paper Zappos by Daniel Silberberg – ID 329655716 Lior Stern – ID 201263910 Nimrod Stern – ID 302328992 February 23rd, 2014 Lecturer: Dr. Galit Dayan TA: Einat Brainin Organizational Behavior Part A. Introduction 1. We chose Zappos.com, an innovative and adaptive online shoe and clothing shop, due to its unique positive company culture, sky-high employee satisfaction and fascinating CEO, Tony Hsieh. Zappos is an organization that has committed itself to a fun, inspired and qualitative culture. The company CEO genuinely believes in delivering happiness to all employees, and working in an gratifying office environment. Tony Hsieh has built a remarkable reputation for himself by being an inventive leader unafraid to equip his staff with responsibility and control. 2. Zappos is one of the largest online shoe and clothing shops. Zappos offers approximately 50,000 types of shoes, providing a large variety of brands, sizes and colors. Their inventory also includes clothes, watches and kids’ merchandise. The concept is simple; it is a traditional eCommerce corporation. Orders are made online and transferred to their warehouse in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. The products are then packed and the order is updated with a tracking number and shipped to the customer. Zappos is especially known for their generous shipping policies. Indeed, the shipping and return costs are free, with a return policy of 365 days for every product. Zappos works closely with...
Words: 2528 - Pages: 11
...From the Meaning-Centered Approach, how is Zappos being generated through human interaction? The way to understand organizational communication is by discovering how organizational reality is generated through human interaction. The approach describes organizational communication as the process for generating shared realities that become organizing, decision-making, influence and culture. I must admit, I didn’t fully understand when Karl Weick proposed that organizations as such do not exist but are in the process of existing through on-going human interaction. Then I thought about it and was like, he’s right. Organizations are social systems and can only exist when human interaction exists. In other words, if there’s no communication there’s no organization. It’s evident in both videos that value is placed on the employees which spills over to customer service. The corporate culture is much more than a set of values but a web of human interactions. It’s all about how the business gets done. Employees share the same core values and share in the responsibility of delivering happiness to the customers. The company doesn’t focus on customer service but on the culture of the company. Employees have the same shared practices and realities which is how they create and shape the company. The influence comes from the CEO Tony Hsieh. In the video, the CEO talks we not I. He doesn’t have his own office but instead shares a space among his employees. His salary...
Words: 972 - Pages: 4
...Zappos was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn as an online shoe retail website. It offered more than 100 brands and by 2000 it had expanded to 150 brands. They distinguish themselves from the competition by providing free shipping and an outstanding customer service. In 2009 Amazon bought Zappos for $1.2 billion. Swinmurn is no longer involved with Zappos and Tony Hsieh has been the company CEO since 2001. Hsieh has been the driving force behind Zappos innovative “weird” culture or as some people may call it a “cult”. Zappos’ culture could be considered unconventional, but its formula has generated billions of revenues while keeping customers, employees and shareholders happy. In the following paragraph, I will explore the culture of Zappos and how it manages to be successful and stand apart from the competition. I will also review my own company’s culture and whether its culture helps the company to compete and be successful. Zappos’ philosophy is based on keeping customers happy with an outstanding customer service, but in order to provide an outstanding customer service you have to have a happy employee. Hsieh’s formula is very simple: happy customers + happy employees = profits. In order words, one cannot exist without the other. Because of Hsieh’s emphasis in providing excellent service to both customers and employees, Zappos’ organizational culture profile is of people-oriented and service. Hsieh understood from the very beginning and from past experiences that the success...
Words: 1123 - Pages: 5
...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...
Words: 1318 - Pages: 6
...Organizational Structure Employee Benefits Medical The Zappos Family offers a preferred provider organization (PPO) medical plan, large provider network, and no money out-of-pocket for certain medical expenses! Some highlights of the plan are listed below: • No deductible for in-network utilization. • All eligible primary, routine, and preventative care covered at 100 percent. Dental Delta Dental PPO Our dental plan covers 2 free exams per year and 3 free cleanings. You will have a $2000 plan maximum per year to cover basic and major services. We also provide an adult orthodontia benefit. Vision Superior Vision We offer two types of vision plans: a base plan and a buy-up plan. The base vision plan provides you with everything you need to keep your eyes healthy! The buy-up plan is intended for eyeglass/contact lens lovers because it has an increased allowable for just a few dollars more per paycheck. Life Insurance Hartford The Zappos Family offers life insurance and accident insurance. For both plans, your benefit is 1x your annual salary. Fitness • On-site Fitness Center, open 24/7 with cardio equipment, weight machines and free weights. • Regular on-site wellness calendar featuring fitness classes, financial awareness classes, and nutritional/general health classes several times per month. • Endurance Event Reimbursement Program - 100 percent reimbursement of entry fee into eligible endurance events. • Company sponsored fitness challenges...
Words: 1958 - Pages: 8
...cofounded LinkExchange with his Harvard roommate Shanjay Madan. It was an Internet advertising company Sold LinkExchange $265 billion to Microsoft.. The reason he sold the company was he did not enjoy coming to the work anymore. Joined Zappos 1999 He joined Zappos as an investor and advisor. Swinmurn who founded Zappos, left the company in 2006. Hsieh became a CEO until today.Became CEO 2006 They had hard time and were edge of the bankruptcy too but they still were investing the customer service. The culture-we was unable to rise funding so we weren't able to spend a lot of money on expensive marketing campaigns. As a result, we were forced to focus more on our existing customers. What we found was that the more we invested into customer service and the customer experience, the more loyal they were, and the more we grew from word of mouth. For our own customers, we've noticed many of them migrating to less expensive brands, but they're still purchasing from us, too. On any given day, about 75% of our orders come from repeat customers. “Be real and you have nothing to fear” Your culture is your brand Don’t try to be someone you are not For those new to the Zappos brand and Tony Hsieh, here’s a quick video about what they’re about. Delivering Happiness opens with a quotation from the Matrix: “There’s a difference...
Words: 1213 - Pages: 5
