Culture Sells

Our last post featured a video interview with a friend of mine, Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com. This is a name and company you will start to hear a lot about. They passed over the magic $1B threshold in sales.

But that is not why you should pay attention to them. In all our years of work, we have rarely seen companies take the principles of corporate culture and drive them as well as Tony does.

I first met Tony back in 1999, their first year in business. We spoke many times about how to sell shoes online. My advice to Tony then is the same to you today - do not try to sell online, try to be online. Okay confusing yes, But let me explain. If Zappos wanted to be successful at selling shoes online, they needed to take the experience of buying shoes in a upscale, independent shoe store - not some department store who has forgotten the true art of fit and service.

My example was Barnes and Noble. Amazon.com was first to the web with books right? Well, Barnes and Noble wanted to compete so they put up their own website. Only who is still the best at book sales? Amazon.com - the one who does not even own a book store. Simply put, they missed the most important rule - the one I shared above.

If Barnes and Noble had focused on bringing their store experience online instead of processing sales of books, then, I believe it would be a different story today. You know what I mean. The warm embrace of the store when you enter. the escape from the outside world you get when lounging in a chair in the back corner reading. Imagine if they had brought this online?

But the lesson for today is this - your culture is your culture. When you try to be something you are not, you will FAIL! People who interact with you in a store, need to get the same vibe and experience from you online. Otherwise, you are not only schizophrenic, but your employees start to lose focus on the true you - and your culture suffers.

That's how it happens. Slowly, over time. And then its gone.