1. Zappos – What is the WOW factor<br />It’s been almost good 2 months that I have been reading articles, stories, blogs, books about Zappos – the decade’s most innovative startup. First time Zappos concept was introduced to me by my boss it struck me not because of the inspiring story of the struggle, risk taking and innovation that the internet based shoe selling company did to get to where they are today- a billion dollar company, but because of the fact that human aspect, company values, customer satisfaction and culture is what came out as paramount factor in their success and that the company takes at most pride in its human side of business.<br />Being an HR professional myself for almost 5 years I always chose to be oblivious to the fact that people do think HR cannot make any difference to the organization, its a function for carrying out the day to day employee operation which requires less or absolutely no business acumen. But Zappos story is a great counter argument to that debate. <br />What is the approach that Zappos takes towards this so talked about workplace bliss? How has Zappos made it to the list of one of the best employers to work? How it is that Zappos culture stories are talked written and presented all around the world? How do they bring in the WOW factor and how do they create fun with a little weirdness?<br />Well, I got the answers to these question when I read a very short interview of Hollie Delaney( current Senior HR manager Zappos) where she said that at Zappos” I am more of a teacher,not a policeman. Our job at Zappos is to protect the culture”.<br />Talking about culture is inevitable when we talk about Zappos. The company was rewarded with Business Week’s Customer Service Champ designation, inclusion on Fortune’s list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, and an A+ rating by the Better Business Bureau. As per Aaron Magness, Zappos’ director of business development and brand marketing “Zappos isn’t focused on customer service; It’s focused on company culture, which leads to customer service. Customer service happens on its own by having the right people and the right culture.” Now that’s a WOW factor. This is when I realized that in every organization there is so much focus on instigating the culture and values to the employees that they fail to bring about the essence of those values. Its time to realize that corporate culture is more than a set of values, and is maintained by a complex web of human interactions. <br />It was interesting to know how Zappos HR function is committed to contribute towards the culture fit of the organization.HR absolutely can turn down an applicant who is a perfect fit for the role but not a culture fit for the organization. While reading this I realized that these HR/Business concepts aren’t unique or something we haven’t heard of, I am sure every organization pens down similar kind of approach but how many actually live by it comes out when companies like Zappos emerge top amongst the numerous others.<br />Another observation that I made following the Zappos stories is the branding approach Zappos took. Where many companies today use internet as a place to advertize their pre set brand, Zappos branding is done by the internet, by its customers and by its own employees or for that matter by me and you right now. With the Internet connecting everyone together, companies are becoming more and more transparent, an unhappy customer can blog about bad experience or tweet it and boom here gets your brand a strong hit. A concept very well explained in the book empowered by Josh bernoff and Ted Schadler.While I was trying to get information about Zappos I was stunned to see that there were so many channels created by the company itself like their office tour, culture book, employee meeting internet broadcast and to top it all they created a complete new branch “zapposinsight”.Now that’s a perfect way to spread the positive message, get goodwill while building a strong brand.<br />Right culture with the right values will always produce the best organizational performance in long run and Zappos is a classic example of that. Well the fact is its not as easy as said but it’s about having faith that if we do the right thing, then in the long run we will succeed and build something great.<br />