I disregard much of this criticism.
Simply consider the facts. Did Zappos sales not grow from zero to a billion in ten years? Did Amazon, the greatest E-tailer in the world, not pay a billion dollars for Zappos several months ago? Did Tony Hsieh not write about the Zappos story in a public work that can be easily examined and disputed by the very people portrayed therein. And have all my friends, who are customers of Zappos and enthusiastically vouch for the customer service anecdotes in the book, somehow joined Hsieh in his conspiracy to portray Zappos as something more than it actually is?
Quite the contrary.
In the final analysis, I think that Tony Hsieh has produced a book of remarkable candor and courage that's a must-read for anyone who works with customers, or who cares about building a truly great service organization. There's much we can all learn from it and I certainly was left feeling emboldened and inspired to do much more in the area of delighting customers.
That being said, I found the book a little slow and amateurish at the beginning, as Tony recounts his earliest experiences in commerce (including a stint with a worm farm and experimentation with mail order). The first 20 pages are actually a little hard to take but the book gains strength with each subsequent chapter.
That's not to say, however, that there aren't a few amateurish lapses along the way.
At one point Tony goes into an inexplicable (and completely irrelevant) one page rant about his "Red Bull Relationship", as well as musings about raves and a reference to Taco Bell's double decker taco value meal! As a result, I think that bizfolk outside of Hsieh's age cohort may have trouble relating to the general message of Delivering Happiness.
No matter.
I get the sense that this book is a manifesto for the twenty and thirty-somethings out there looking to help their organizations break old paradigms and usher into the real future of business in the 21st century.
This book is decidedly NOT for 50 year old CEOs!
Older business people will just find Hsieh's story bewildering: how he lazily got through 4 years at Harvard; how he quit his first, well-paying job at Oracle after just a few months; how he stumbled upon a great idea for a dot com era startup and became rich practically overnight, and much more. It's all a bit surreal.
And the book stays in a meandering sort of mode until Hsieh gets to the part about Zappos.
In fact, the last 150 pages of the book are complete dynamite, bursting at the seams with great business and personal advice about how to be successful in life and in business.
Throughout those pages, Hsieh doesn't tell all but he shares an awful lot. Internal emails, anecdotes from managers and stories from the rank and file all add to the value of Zappos as a case study.
Zappos seems to bring Hsieh back to Earth after the heady growth of his first successful start-up. Building Zappos, we learn soon enough, was a constant struggle with insolvency in the early years as the culture of quirky service took root and evolved into something akin to legend.
I mean, who else paid new trainees $2,000 to quit their jobs? Who else has a 4 year employee recruitment and training program and a 7 year career track for new employees? Who has built a corporate culture as distinct and passionate about service as Zappos?
It's all pretty brilliant, and the most remarkable aspect is that it was the contribution of an e-tailer of shoes!
I read Delivering Happiness eagerly and was rewarded with a sense of what is truly possible for those willing to take risks and stand for something more than just making profits.
Profits are nice, but Tony Hsieh is teaching us that happiness is the ultimate currency.
I've shared my advance copies with my colleagues and plan to re-read the book along with my book club mates at work. I think they'll enjoy and benefit from the book as much as I did. I highly recommend it and hope it inspires you as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment