Be Different or be dead

April 12, 2012

Why this excellent book on ‘Delivering Happiness’ will blow your mind

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Why this excellent book on ‘Delivering Happiness’ will blow your mind.

This book fits into the category of timelessness. Written several years ago, it takes us through the creative things Tony Hsieh — may he Rest In Peace — as leader introduced to make Zappos an organization that ‘delivered happiness’ to its customers.

His ideas and methods are as relevant today as when the book was written. In fact my observation is that organizations today are doing a poorer job at delivering WOW! service than ever, despite what they say about themselves. It should be a must-read for today’s leaders.

This was my review in 2012. It’s still one of the best guides for leaders who want to do more than simply aspire to have a customer focussed culture, they want to deliver it.

I rarely find an organization that practices what I fundamentally believe is required to distinguish oneself in the market to succeed and survive. My regular reader will know that I am relentless in advocating proven and practical practices to create distance between yourself and the competitive herd.

I am a ‘simple’, ‘execute’ and ONLY strategy hawk, a ‘value’ marketing guy, a ‘relationship’ sales believer and a ‘dazzling experience’ customer server

This book is evidence of a leader that also believed in these principles and built a phenomenally successful business by relentlessly applying them.

Tony has created an interesting and enjoyable read by his informal captivating writing style. You don’t have to ‘fight the words’ on every page. You find yourself easily consuming page after page effortlessly. The recounting of his early years and what he did to prepare himself for ‘The Show’ was informative and to the analytical hemisphere in each of us made it easy to predict his future as a business entrepreneur.

But what impressed me was the rich examples of what he did to establish Zappos as a stand-out company; one that focused on a single value dimension to attract and build a loyal customer base; one that literally created a culture that served his chosen strategic direction.

In no particular order, here is a sample of the climax learning moments for me in Delivering Happiness:

▪️ Never outsource a core competency. He unlike others resisted the economic temptation to outsource his call center operations;

▪️ You always have a choice of which table to sit at (from his poker days). Choose the table - pick the customer group to serve - that maximizes your chances of success. WHO to serve;

▪️ He had an audacious goal of generating $1 Billion in revenue by 2010. This growth goal drove all activity in the business. An excellent example of HOW BIG in action;

▪️ Lifelong learning through the Zappos Library. People make their business - everyone’s business!

▪️ THE strategic driving force behind Zappos is to create WOW! experiences for customers, employees, suppliers and owners. Tight strategy. Easy to understand. Easy to relate to;

▪️ All activities are aligned to the service experience goal. Direct line of sight for all people in the organization. Random Acts of WOW-ness are expected and are a part of performance management;

▪️ When Zappos can’t supply what the customer wants, they are directed to research their competition. They are driven by the relationship not the short term sale. Lose a sale but save the customer;

▪️The language of Zappos is all about the customer — Not Call Centers, but The Customer Loyalty Team;

▪️ They created, published AND - more importantly - practice the Ten Core Values of Zappos;

▪️ The #1 Core Value = Deliver WOW Through Service;

▪️ ‘The power of 1%’, a blog posted by Alfred the CFO/COO. A brilliant example of ‘get a nano-inch’ of progress FAST. Increments of advancement add up to impressive performance improvements;

▪️ Weirdness is promulgated as a differential advantage. Tony’s words “We want the company to have a unique and memorable personality”;

▪️ Build a pipeline of people rather than thinking of individuals as assets. You need to build a steady stream of people with the skills and competencies you need. A Pipeline Team delivers courses to various departments.

As an author I was WOW’d by the way Tony and crew distributed the advanced copy of his book for comment. Delivering Happiness was made available to bloggers who post blog articles regularly with a ‘promise’ to blog the book on the Publication date June 7, 2010.

What a slick method of, first, getting the Advanced Copy out to a large group of people; second, receiving complementary promotion of his book, and, third, gathering a repository of testimonials for his book. Brilliant example of how Authors can use Social Media to leverage their work. Nice!

Rarely have I seen such a cornucopia of ‘stuff’ that not only mirrors the business practices I believe in but which also have been executed in the real world. Tony has personally breathed life into the notions that people espouse as the right things to do. He did it and he nailed it in his book.

I strongly recommend Delivering Happiness to anyone looking to build something successful and memorable.

Cheers,
Roy

Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 4.12.12 at 10:00 am by Roy Osing
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April 2, 2012

Why a sneaky grin can mean you are being betrayed

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Why a sneaky grin can mean you are being betrayed.

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover….

Or a person by the way they’re dressed.

Sure an underwhelming cover sometimes masks brilliance. But it works the other way as well.

In fact the pretty package could hide a devastating downside. Great looks and a pristine veneer can be deceiving.

He can flash a big grin at you while cursing you under his breath. Ever been ‘grinned’?

He can answer all of your questions absolutely perfectly, yet he doesn’t believe a word he says.

The pretty first impression can be completely misleading.

The act can be captivating.

Better look deeper.

Better spend the time and confirm that his looks and words portray who he really is.

Fashion isn’t important. Human DNA is. Is he real? Does he care about other humans?

It really doesn’t matter what his intellectual capacity is. If he doesn’t relate to people he and you will be trouble.

If he can’t contribute to the humanity of your organization you won’t be getting a payback on your investment.

Do a deep dive under his pretty and plastic finish. Strip it off. Expose the real person. Be brutal if you have to.

If your experience with him doesn’t give you goosebumps, next…..

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 4.2.12 at 10:41 am by Roy Osing
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March 29, 2012

How your brilliant business proposal can be a whopping success

Source: Pexels

How your brilliant business proposal can be a whopping success.

Your business proposal has been approved. Awesome! Well done!

All your hard work has paid off. The many hours of analysis. Research. Economic study. Trade-off assessment. Lobbying for support.

Make no mistake about it though. All you have done is make the paper case that your plan will succeed.

You have in no way created a case that will actually win in the real world.

In fact most of the work that has to be done takes place after your plan has been approved internally.

Execution brings your proposal to life.

Whatever the number of hours invested in developing your proposal spend 3 times more in creating your detailed execution plan.

Critical steps in your action plan

— Assign the individuals who will be assigned to each;

— Set the completion dates for each action item;

— Establish the review process that will be followed to ensure implementation is moving forward as planned;

— Define the contingencies for when things go off track (and they will).

Your business case has given you the right to commit resources to a given course. It is a mere possibility and guarantees nothing in terms of success.

Put in the hard work into execution for success.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 3.29.12 at 08:03 am by Roy Osing
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March 26, 2012

3 important ways to power up your business

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3 important ways to power up your business.

Everyone is looking for the key to winning in business.

Problem is there isn’t ONE key. Winning in today’s intensely competitive world is all about doing a ton of simple things that create distance from the competitive herd.

But there are 3 things that, if done with passion and relentless tenacity, will turbocharge any organization on a winning path.

1. Have an ONLY Statement

Create a competitive claim that clearly establishes your distinctiveness. Your uniqueness. What makes you special compared to others.

“We are the ONLY ones that…..” is a practical way to create your position that is not aspirational, but can be executed in the marketplace. The ONLY statement is your elevator speech to describe what you do and who you are.

2. Do stuff for your loyal customers

Make them the center of attention. Build your business on the backs of the people who are loyal to you. Offer them the special deals first; don’t try and use promotions to acquire new customers until you’ve taken care of your loyalists first.

Make it easy for them to ‘sneeze’ you to others. Grow your business by trusting that if you leave your fans gaspworthy they will spread your word.

3. Make your game the dazzle game

Loyalty is created by delivering WOW! experiences not products that work according to specifications. People expect things to work the way you say they will. What they don’t expect is a mind-blowing experience when they get them.

Dazzle = powerful positive feelings = loyalty = word-of-mouth promotion = long term success. It’s just that simple.

Focus on getting started by creating this culture in your organization and it will yield the end-game you want

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 3.26.12 at 09:53 am by Roy Osing
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