Company culture
Small businesses should focus on building the right culture
It’s wise to pay employees to quit early than later. Misfit employees harm the company’s culture. Zappos paid its employees more than INR 1,50,000 to quit early.
Tony Tseish is a maverick business leader. He resigned from Zappos after 20 years. He was fanatic about company’s culture. Zappos call centre employees could decide things without asking the managers. They could customize their desk as they fancied. Tony also brought in Holacracy, which eliminated hierarchy, designations and formal structure. He also shifted the entire team to Las Vegas, while building a startup city.
Tony Tsieh said about the company culture,“The reason most companies don’t focus as much as they should on customer service or company culture is that the ROI is usually 2–3 years down the line.”
Indie businesses can learn five things from Tony. One, culture first, customers second. Two, training is they key. It does not matter how small is your business. Three, hire slow, fire fast. It matters for employees to identify with the core values of the business. Four, wow your customers. Zappos were the first to offer free returns. Five, value insights from employees and vendors. Tony started Downtown Project on vendor’s advice. It was city as a startup.
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