Zappos’ founder and CEO Tony Hsieh tells the story of his company’s raving fans and rapid growth, won through a maniacal focus on corporate culture and customer satisfaction. This was one of the books we had every employee read at Varrow, a fast-growing IT start-up. It became a cornerstone of our award-winning customer-centric culture.
While I believe Delivering Happiness provides a great blueprint for culture-building in new and young organizations, it doesn’t provide much actionable insight in how to apply these principles to established, unhealthy, or calcified businesses. Readers who have worked in traditional businesses will find opportunities to laugh out loud at the naïveté of some of the stories. Still, it’s an entertaining and inspiring look into what’s possible when you build a truly aligned organizational culture.