Posted By janice on June 9, 2010

When reading Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose, two things come to mind. First, author and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh will never have to appear on Undercover Boss to find out what’s going on in his company. Secondly, it’s refreshing to hear talk about transparency, trust, and passion from a CEO who actually means and lives it.

Delivering Happiness is no ordinary business book. I hope it’s the beginning of a movement that Hsieh (pronounced Shay) spearheads.
Zappos company culture and Hsieh himself have become the stuff of legend in the business world. I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy to review from the publisher, and it’s an interesting ride to follow Hsieh’s journey from grade school entrepreneur to Zappos CEO.

Hsieh’s jaw-dropping ambition and drive began at an early age when most of us were interested in recess and toys. A natural born entrepreneur, he was always interested in making money and creating a successful business. He was among the first dot.com millionaires with LinkExchange, which he and his partners later sold to Microsoft.

Hsieh chronicles his adventures, missteps, and successes in a breezy, matter-of-fact style. I was amazed at the risks he took with his businesses and how normal he made that kind of bravery sound. What would terrify and paralyze most people, Hsieh embraced and leaped.

In addition to gutsiness, Hsieh’s accomplishments centered around establishing strong tribes of friends and colleagues. His desire to be surrounded by a cohesive, supportive tribe led to the creation of Zappos transparent corporate culture. The company’s goal is to deliver happiness (and shoes always create happiness) and create WOW service, and the employees have the freedom to do that. Zappos employees and customers even have written some passages giving details and examples of the company’s core values.

While reading the book, I couldn’t help but think of BP and their oil spill response. I know nothing of how BP operates, but I wonder if they had a culture of trust and transparency like Zappos, would someone have had the courage to speak up about safety issues? Or what about the banks in crisis? Would we have had so many bailouts if banks had established the same kind of culture of respect, transparency, and service with their customers as Zappos did?

Hsieh wants to start a “Delivering Happiness” movement. In a time when employees have little trust in businesses, we need it. As companies, business owners, and employees rebuild after the recession, I hope more consider Hsieh’s advice and take a hard look at Zappos core values to create similar .ones of their own

Hsieh gives us a great deal to think about in his book. It’s important to point out that as a Gen Xer, Hsieh represents what many Gen Xers and Millennials also want in the work environment. As Baby Boomers continue to retire, Gen Xers will move into more leadership positions, and maybe Hsieh’s “Delivering Happiness” movement won’t be as difficult to move forward.

Note: The hardcover of Delivering Happiness landed in bookstores on June 7.

Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Tags:

Posted By janice on June 2, 2010

Check out my latest post as The Organized Auntie on www.savvyauntie.com. This week’s post is about how to create a vision board to capture your goals, ideas, and inspirations. Check it out!

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By janice on May 7, 2010

(more…)

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By janice on April 28, 2010

Virgina Dare Besett Anderson, my beloved fourth-grade English teacher, passed away this past weekend. I am happy that she knew how important she was to me, how influential she was in my young life, how much I adored her.

I had a different teacher for homeroom, but I loved changing to Mrs. Besett’s class for English, one of my favorite subjects. I loved reading, writing and history over that math stuff. She was grandmotherly, soft and loving with gray curly hair and glasses. I had never met someone named Virginia before. To me, it was a name of a state located far from the plains of Oklahoma. I even named a doll Virginia after Mrs. Besett.

Back then, I was in my “tall blonde phase.” I was gawky, geeky, and stick-like with large glasses and long blonde hair perpetually pulled into two ponytails or braids. My mom sewed all of our clothes.

My friends had two sets of grandparents, and my siblings and I only had one set since Mom’s parents both passed away when she was young. Grandpa was generally a silent sort, and Grandma was bony with hard edges, both physically and emotionally. Grandmas were supposed to look more like my great-aunts and Mrs. Besett.

Mrs. Besett loved the fact that my sister and I were adopted like her two granddaughters. I happily admit that I was a teacher’s pet. She asked me to fill her tall plastic glass with water from the water fountain and run errands for her. Mrs. Besett was a nurturing soul at a time in my life when I needed it. I just didn’t know I needed it at the time.

At recess, I sometimes would hang back and talk to her as she supervised us on the playground. She nudged me to go and play with my friends, but I liked hanging out with her.

I beamed with pride when she commented how much she loved my book report on John F. Kennedy, who turned out to be one of her favorite presidents. We had a year together before I moved onto fifth grade. She retired a year or two later. Through the grapevine winding through small towns, I found out that her husband passed away. When I entered my teen years, I ran into her and her new husband at the TG&Y a couple of times.

I don’t remember exactly how or when the letter writing began. After college, I moved to Galveston to work at the newspaper there. I liked writing letters before the age of the quickie e-mail. Back then, I wrote letters to Mrs. Besett, my journalism professor from college, and several of my friends. In letters, I addressed her as Mrs. Besett or Besett Anderson, and she wrote back at some point when I was in my 30s to say I could call her “Virginia.” I tried it once but it felt funny and almost disrespectful.

About a year before moving into a nursing home, Mrs. Besett surprised me by stopping at my house a few days before Christmas. She saw cars in the driveway and decided to stop by to see if I was there. We had a lovely visit, and my sister and I went down the road to see her a couple of days later.

I recognized the signs from my own grandmother. Mrs. Besett repeated herself and asked the same questions several times, and I answered them every time. She laughed about how she was only allowed to drive from her home to Elgin, and her daughter and son-in-law lived nearby and brought her meals she could warm up.

When meeting her daughter for the first time, she said, “Oh, Janice, yes, I’ve heard a lot about you.”  I flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and pride. No matter how old you are, you still want to make your favorite teachers happy. Maybe we’re all perpetual fourth-graders deep down.

At age 93, Virginia Dare Besett Anderson left us behind. The world feels emptier without her. I imagine her looking down at all of us, all of her fourth-graders. When I close my eyes, I can almost hear her laugh on the playground.

Category: Life | 2 Comments »
Tags: