In case you don’t know Tony Hsieh, the entrepreneur and mastermind behind Zappos, he is definitely someone you need to get familiar with. Not only did Hsieh (pronounced “Shay”) have the business acumen to grow Zappos into a $1.2 billion business, but he also introduced a revolutionary way of running a business.
His winning strategy revolves around making his customers happy… a recipe that has made him one of the most respected and admired CEO’s of our time.
While Hsieh definitely knows how to churn out profits, we should also mention that Zappos was listed as one of Fortune magazine’s top 25 companies to work for. So, he clearly knows how to keep his employees happy as well.
Tony Hsieh was an entrepreneur for most of his life. Before he was the CEO of Zappos, he co-founded LinkExchange, a company he sold to Microsoft for $265 million. Even before that, he owned everything from a lemonade stand to a pizza business.
It is no question that this Harvard grad knows how to turn businesses into profit machines. When asked about his success strategies, one might expect him to explain the complexities of managing systems… but instead Hsieh just emphasizes the importance of making people happy.
In his new book, Delivering Happiness, Tony Hsieh explains how his decision to focus on happiness produced profits, passion and purpose in business and in life.
Here Are Five Ways To Deliver Happiness The Tony Hsieh Way:
1. Invest In The Culture Of Your Business
“Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can’t deliver good service from unhappy employees.”
2. Embrace Your Employees’ Creativity
“I view my role more as trying to set up an environment where the personalities, creativity and individuality of all the different employees come out and can shine.”
3. Make Your Company Stand For Something
“We asked ourselves what we wanted this company to stand for. We didn’t want to just sell shoes. I wasn’t even into shoes – but I was passionate about customer service.”
4. Give Your Customers A Reason To Come Back
“The #1 driver of our growth has been through repeat customers and word of mouth. We still have financial goals to make, we just choose to invest more in customer service than in paid advertising.”
5. Don’t Focus On The Money
“Have fun. The game is a lot more enjoyable when you’re trying to do more than just make money.”