Be Adventurous, Creative, And Open-Minded – Core Values of a Billion Dollar Online Shoe Company

At Zappos, We Think It’s Important For People And The Company As A Whole To Be Bold And Daring (But Not Reckless).

We do not want people to be afraid to take risks and make mistakes. We believe if people aren’t making mistakes, then that means they’re not taking enough risks. Over time, we want everyone to develop his/her gut about business decisions. We want people to develop and improve their decision-making skills. We encourage people to make mistakes as long as they learn from them.

We never want to become complacent and accept the status quo just because that’s the way things have always been done. We should always be seeking adventure and having fun exploring new possibilities. By having the freedom to be creative in our solutions, we end up making our own luck. We approach situations and challenges with an open mind.

Sometimes our sense of adventure and creativity causes us to be unconventional in our solutions (because we have the freedom to think outside the box), but that’s what allows us to rise above and stay ahead of the competition.

Source http://about.zappos.com/our-unique-culture/zappos-core-values/be-adventurous-creative-and-open-minded

Create Fun and A Little Weirdness – Core Values of a Billion Dollar Online Shoe Company

At Zappos, We’re Always Creating  Fun And A Little Weirdness!

One of the things that makes Zappos different from a lot of other companies is that we value being fun and being a little weird. We don’t want to become one of those big companies that feels corporate and boring. We want to be able to laugh at ourselves. We look for both fun and humor in our daily work.

This means that many things we do might be a little unconventional — or else it wouldn’t be a little weird. We’re not looking for crazy or extreme weirdness though. We want just a touch of weirdness to make life more interesting and fun for everyone. We want the company to have a unique and memorable personality.

Our company culture is what makes us successful, and in our culture, we celebrate and embrace our diversity and each person’s individuality. We want people to express their personality in their work. To outsiders, that might come across as inconsistent or weird. But the consistency is in our belief that we function best when we can be ourselves. We want the weirdness in each of us to be expressed in our interactions with each other and in our work.

One of the side effects of encouraging weirdness is that it encourages people to think outside the box and be more innovative. When you combine a little weirdness with making sure everyone is also having fun at work, it ends up being a win-win for everyone: Employees are more engaged in the work that they do, and the company as a whole becomes more innovative.

source http://about.zappos.com/our-unique-culture/zappos-core-values/create-fun-and-little-weirdness

Embrace and Drive Change – Core Values of a Billion Dollar Online Shoe Company

Part Of Being In A Growing Company Is That Change Is Constant.

For some people, especially those who come from bigger companies, the constant change can be somewhat unsettling at first. If you are not prepared to deal with constant change, then you probably are not a good fit for the company.

We must all learn not only to not fear change, but to also embrace it enthusiastically, and perhaps even more importantly, to encourage and drive it. We must always plan for and be prepared for constant change.

Although change can and will come from all directions, it’s important that most of the changes in the company are driven from the bottom up — from the people who are on the front lines and closest to the customers and/or issues.

Never accept or be too comfortable with the status quo because, historically, the companies that get into trouble are the ones that aren’t able to respond quickly enough and adapt to change.

We are ever evolving. If we want to continue to stay ahead of our competition, we must continually change and keep them guessing. They can copy our images, our shipping, and the overall look of our web site, but they cannot copy our people, our culture, or our service. As long as embracing constant change is a part of our culture, they will not be able to evolve as fast as we can.

Zappos Core Value #2

Core Values of a Billion Dollar Online Shoe Company

After reading about the company culture at Google over 10 years ago I have since been interested in the many varieties of business culture. I recently took a Business Organizational Effectiveness course and my interest has been reinvigorated. One of the companies I have admired for the last couple of years is Zappos.com. Zappos is a company that sells shoes online and was started in 1999. In just under 10 years Zappos has grown to become the largest online shoe store and this last year grossed over a billion dollars. They were just recently acquired by Amazon for over a billion dollars!

The reason I have been interested in Zappos all these years is because I have wondered how the heck a company that sells shoes and has a weird name has been able to achieve so much. The main reason I believe they are so successful is their focus on customer service. I have once read where they call themselves a Customer Service Company that sells shoes. This is the perfect explanation of who they are.

Zappos is special and I am going to try to share how. For the next 10 weeks I am going to share each one of the Zappos Core Values. If you want to jump ahead of the weekly posts go to http://about.zappos.com/our-unique-culture/zappos-core-values

Zappos Core Value #1 – Deliver WOW Through Service

At Zappos, Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Doing With WOW.

WOW is such a short, simple word, but it really encompasses a lot of things. To WOW, you must differentiate yourself, which means doing something a little unconventional and innovative. You must do something that’s above and beyond what’s expected. And whatever you do must have an emotional impact on the receiver. We are not an average company, our service is not average, and we don’t want our people to be average. We expect every employee to deliver WOW.

Whether internally with co-workers or externally with our customers and partners, delivering WOW results in word of mouth. Our philosophy at Zappos is to WOW with service and experience, not with anything that relates directly to monetary compensation (for example, we don’t offer blanket discounts or promotions to customers).

We seek to WOW our customers, our co-workers, our vendors, our partners, and in the long run, our investors.

Lets get this party started!

Some of you might already know this but one of my loves in life is dancing.

As I look back at my life,  some of the funnest times and even the most important events include dancing. I met my beautiful wife at an dance party. The best part about cruising starts after 8 when the dance clubs open up. The single most exhilarating day of my life, The 2007 Ironman World Championship in Kona, where my wife and I were a volunteers and had press access included dancing and cheering on the finishing racers for the last 3 hours of the race. The seemingly daily dancing with the family when the music is on. Our whole family gets into it, even our two year old can shake it! We just love dancing.

Well it is time to get this party on and start dancing.

In preparation for a BIG product release it is time to start talking about what I know best: Business, Real Estate and Social Media. Stay tuned and subscribe to this blog to get all the best in whats happening right now. I will be sharing with you my secrets to making millions of dollars in this current marketplace and will be preparing you for what is about to come!

Who is Charley Bravo?

Thanks for visiting me at the new CharleyBravo.com. I would like to think of myself as a successful husband, father, business-man and just plain ole nice guy.

I am a Real Estate and E-Business entrepreneur and have founded multiple startups that have achieved millions in revenues. I love family, Real Estate, E-Business, social media and triathlons. I am the author of an upcoming  series of books on Real Estate and E-Business and I have spoken at various colleges and seminars around the world.

To find out more follow me at: http://www.twitter.com/charleybravo