"The Science of Happiness" or "Making your company a fortune 100 place to work"

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com has a different philosophy about doing business. It probably leaves a lot of other CEOs scratching their heads.

Tony is more concerned with happy employees and happy customers. Not necessarily profits. He argues that if you have happy employees and happy customers, and you're half-way smart about running your business, money comes later... and that's okay, if you decide that's how you want to run your company.

Well, considering Zappos is a fortune 100 "best places to work" and one of the top online retailers, I'd say he's on to something. Also, 75% of Zappos revenue is from repeat customers.

I'm most interested in how he has built the right culture for his company. He believes in culture so much that he invests in it. Instead of spending money on marketing or advertising, he spends on the hiring process, the training process and taking care of his employees.

Hsei argues that your brand= your culture as a company, which if you're an online retailer, or if you're in the service industry (ahem, advertising!) then this is your model. Your brand is the people you have.

I'd even argue it's more important in advertising. Your your ideas are dependent on the people you have and their happiness or drive/desire to innovate.

These are Hsei's 7 steps for building a brand that matters:

Step 1: Decide
If you're trying to build a long term sustainable brand, then there's a lot of trade-offs you make. You might take a hit on revenue and profit opportunities in the beginning, but you must decide if this is what you're about.

Step 2: Figure out Values & Culture
What are your personal core values? What are the company core values? Start early. It is surprisingly harder than you think to create these. In the end, it doesn't matter what the values are. The most important thing is alignment from everyone who works there "These are our values as a company." Culture & Brand are the same thing.

Step 3: Commit to Transparency
"Be real and you ahve nothing to fear." Hsei gives his vendors and brands he sells 100% transparency into his business online through login accounts. He's not afraid of competition, he thinks of it as actually having 1500 other companies helping him make his business better.

Step 4: Vision.
Whatever you're thinking, think bigger. Does the vision have meaning? Chase the vision, not the money... "Don't chase the paper, chase the dream." Motivation vs. Inspiration. Think about inspiring your employees rather than motivating.

Step 5: Build Relationships.
Personally, I hate networking. It seems so insincere. Mostly, I'd rather meet people I'm interested in. Which is why this point hit home!
Don't network. Be INTERESTED instead of being INTERESTING.

Step 6: Build your team.
"If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you wan to go far, go together." Hire slowly. Fire quickly. Too many times we hire to quickly to just fill a seat, think about the people we have to let go because they weren't the right fit? I can't tell you how much I believe in this. Especially in light of recent events.

Step 7: Think Long Term.
There is no "get rich quick" formula. "Overnight" success usually has been years in the making.