My Tour of Zappos

I have long been fascinated what it takes to develop of strong corporate culture. A couple years ago while watching an interview with Tony Hsieh on an Oprah special, ‘Millionaire Moguls’ , I got my first glimpse of Zappos.com. I always remembered that the multimillionaire CEO sat in a cubicle and only made $37 thousand a year.

Then this past fall Inc Magazine published an amazing article on Tony Hsieh written by Max Chafkin. Zappos stood out as being truly unique, driven by a passionate team and obsessed with the consumer experience. Zappos is North America’s largest online shoe retailer, the site has also begun selling clothing and other merchandise. This past summer Zappos was bought be Amazon for a total of approximately $928 million. Talk about a flip! For more information on the acquisition, check out this TechCrunch article.

To say the least, I have always found Zappos to be fascinating and I was curious to learn more. So last week when I found my self in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) I decided I’d see if I could pay the Zappos head office a visit.  I went online at Zappos Insights and was able to easily book a free tour. The company runs the tours multiple times a day, Monday-Thursday.

I must say the tour was a great experience, one that I’d recommend to anyone interested in entrepreneurship and corporate culture. Zappos really does it right.

I got picked up before my tour by one of a number of official Zappos Shuttle Vans. Door to door service to the office was complimentary with my tour. The shuttle is used by the company to pick up anyone from vendors and suppliers, to people simply taking a tour. The shuttle staff were just as friendly as any one I would me later that day. Not to mention, while I was the only one on the shuttle they offered to make a special stop at Starbucks and bought me my morning latte (on the company). Remember now, this is a free tour!

The office wasn’t very big or particularly glamorous in any way. However, everyone there was simply happier than the average worker, everyone wanted to be at the office, and everyone wanted you to be there too. Zappos employees are known to go through an intense two week incubation process during which the company searches for the right ‘culture fit’. At the end of the two week process, those employees that are offered a position are also offered $2000 if they quit immediately. Essentially, the process looks to eliminate anyone that isn’t in it for the right reasons. Not to mention, employees at Zappos are offered the opportunity to fast track through management by taking in-house courses. The company’s reasoning is that since they are growing so fast, why not allow employees the opportunity to build the career they want.

The Zappos lobby features a popcorn machine, Rockstar Enery Drinks, a collection of memorabilia on the history of the company as well as a bookcase filled with multiple copies of books on personal and business development. Any visitors to the office are welcomed to take any book they like home with them. I picked Made to Stick. The day I went, the following books were on the shelf (yes, I copied down all of the titles…lol).

  • The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey
  • The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt
  • Raving Fans, Ken Blanchard
  • Who Moved My Cheese?, Spencer Johnson
  • I Love You More Than My Dog, Jeanne Bliss
  • The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell
  • Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
  • Blink, Malcolm Gladwell
  • Four Hour Work Week, Timothy Ferris
  • SuperFreakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
  • The Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki
  • Happier, Tal Ben-Shahar
  • Made to Stick, Dan and Chip Heath
  • The Levity Effect, Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher
  • How the Mighty Fall, Jim Collins
  • Rules of Thumb, Alan Webber
  • The Three Laws of Performance, Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan
  • Slack, Tom DeMarco
  • Crush It, Gary Vaynerchuk
  • The Present, Spencer John
  • Fish, Stephen Lundin

While I am more than ever impressed by what Tony and his team have created, I don’t want to spoil the tour for you by giving away all the details…nor do I want to bore you right now! I have uploaded some pictures from the tour here on Flickr, feel free to take a look through. And next time your in Vegas, put down the drinks and hold the slots for an afternoon and head out to the Zappos office!