HENDERSON, Nev. — One look inside Zappos.com’s headquarters here and it’s pretty clear what Fortune magazine saw when it debuted the company at No. 23 on its 2009 list of Best Companies to Work For.
A Dance Dance Revolution machine, free popcorn and free books greet visitors in the lobby.
However, the online retailer’s relaxed, fun-loving and close-knit family atmosphere that has won over employees, investors and industry watchers alike runs far deeper than that. The appeal becomes clearer when approaching CEO Tony Hsieh working at his desk.
Hsieh doesn’t have a corner office. He doesn’t even have a full cubicle. His workstation, in fact, is indistinguishable from any of the other hundreds of employees in the building — except maybe for the rainforest decorations hanging from the ceiling and the giant inflatable monkey.
“The best way to have an open-door policy is not to have a door in the first place,” Hsieh said.
It’s a telling insight into the corporate philosophy that has helped Zappos grow from a shoe-selling Web site run out of an apartment to a 1,500-employee company that also sells clothing, accessories, cosmetics, home goods and anything else that grabs buyers’ fancy.
Hsieh became a millionaire in 1998 at 24 when he sold his online advertising company to Microsoft. He sold that company not for the money, he said, but because it had grown so fast and wildly that he barely recognized it any more. In the final weeks, Hsieh said he came to dread just going into work.
“We didn’t know any better at the time to pay attention to company culture,” Hsieh said.
So when Zappos founder Nick Swinmurn approached Hsieh to help his company grow, Hsieh found an intriguing opportunity to take a professional mulligan and build the company he envisioned.
Hsieh said he joined Zappos with two big goals: reach $1 billion in sales by the 12th year (it reached that plateau last year — the company’s 10th — on Christmas Day) and crack the Best Companies to Work For list.
Reaching that goal has required more than free meals, full benefits and a nap room (all of which Zappos provides). Hsieh adopted 10 Core Values to create a corporate culture, ranging from No. 1, “Deliver WOW through service,” to No. 10, “Be humble.”
Melissa Crawford, a customer loyalty lead, said the core values are what attracted her to Zappos and that she has adopted them in her own life.
“Oh my gosh, this is my home away from home,” she said. “This is my life. It’s changed my life … Our culture is the best reason to work here.”
To truly live by those values, Hsieh said, employees have to be free to be themselves. That means no call times or scripts for customer service representatives, regular costume parties and parades and decorations in each department.
The emphasis on individuality is one of the aspects that won over Jamie Naughton, a human resources employee who goes by the title Assistant Cruise Ship Manager.
Naughton worked for a staffing agency that helped Zappos hire staff when it moved to southern Nevada almost five years ago. She had never seen the kind of positive feedback from placed workers as what the agency received from those working at Zappos, she said. It wasn’t long before she joined them.
“It was a running joke that we would do anything to work for Zappos, even if it was sweeping floors,” Naughton said.
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