Leadership by Zappos
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For this first assessment, we wish to provide a general overview of Zappos corporate, and to focus on its original methods of management. At a glance, Zappos was fonded in 1999 and is a service company that happens to sell shoes, but also clothing, handbags, eyewear, and watches. The strength of this company is based on its online service: a fast and free shipping. The benefits are various: free return shipping, fast fulfilment…
Furthermore, these business competitive qualities, Zappos is a really good case study because the concept of happiness in business is a priority question for its employees management style and others stakeholders.
Our presentation is about how can we define happiness in business? What companies are doing in the culture of happiness? How can we combine performance, competitiveness and happiness in business?
a. What’s the leadership? Why it’s important in business?
Most definitions of leadership reflect the assumption that it involves a process whereby intentional influence is exerted over their people to guide, structure, and facilitate activities and relationship in a group or organisation. (*)
Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, had talk about how to lead: “It's more about getting people do what they're passionate about and putting them in the right context or setting. They're the ones doing the hard work. ... Zappos is structured a lot less hierarchical, so we're a lot more flat. We try and decentralize a lot of the decision making. We all hang out with each other, at all different levels." (1).
He shows how a very different kind of corporate culture is a powerful model for achieving success, and how by concentrating on the happiness of those around you, you can dramatically increase your own. (2). It’s this particular vision of the management that we wanted discussed during our presentation.