Zappos and the Importance of Maintaining Company Culture
Photo via The New York Times
When Tony Hsieh took the helm of online mega-retailer Zappos as CEO 16 years ago, the free-wheeling company culture was one of the most distinct and unique characteristics of the existing workplace. But, as the company grew into the juggernaut it is today, some of that fun was lost.
“A lot of people in the organization, including myself, felt like there were more and more layers of bureaucracy,” Hsieh told The New York Times in a recent profile.
Hsieh responded by adopting Holacracy, a system of self-management that does away with traditional corporate hierarchy, notably eliminating managers and allowing any employee to set meeting agendas.
As the Times describes it, Holacracy is somewhat radical, particularly for a company the size of Zappos.
“In place of a traditional organizational chart are concentric circles of responsibility. Employees get to choose which circles they belong to and what projects they work on,” writes David Gelles. “The jargon is relentless. At meetings, ‘tensions’ are resolved. People don’t have one job; they have multiple ‘roles.’ ‘Lead links’ are designated to communicate between circles.”
But most importantly, despite initial transitional growing pains, Hsieh believes that Holacracy will allow Zappos to re-capture some of the company culture that had fallen to the wayside in the wake of the company’s continuing growth.
Defining, maintaining and emphasizing company culture is of increasing importance, particularly as startups are building companies from the ground up. Companies that don’t nurture it run the risk of either losing talent – a trend that has seen fashion houses lose valuable employees to tech startups – or fail to attract talent altogether. It’s no coincidence that there’s tremendous overlap between Forbes‘ list of Best Companies and Glassdoor’s compilation of the Best Places to Work – both based on employee surveys – and LinkedIn’s Most In Demand Employers. People want to work where employees are happy, which is often dependent on a strong company culture.
That mentality is one of the main motivations behind INDX, the newest venture from Karen Harvey Consulting, the team behind Fashion Tech Forum. As the first global digital community for creative talent in fashion, INDX will feature highly relevant content and information for young creative professionals, including original content, insights and career advice, and “behind the scenes” access to our partnered brands, providing a transparent view into the cultures of the companies they may want to work with.
As long as companies like Zappos are leading the way toward greater acceptance of innovative ways of working that emphasize culture, it’s up to everyone else to keep up.
