Book Review: Delivering Happiness

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Wonderful!  I am so glad I read this.  I had been looking for a book on customer service to round out my Option C Leaders program, so I found this one on my list and took it to Florida with me.  Great choice for beach reading... fun, fast, informative.  Hsieh writes in a way that makes the reader feel like she's hanging out with a new friend.

Tony Hsieh makes the case that focusing relentlessly on WOWing customers made Zappos the multi-billion dollar company it has become.  That, and taking care to make sure the quality of work life was high for everyone involved.  His case is compelling, though not terribly fleshed out.  He does provide the Zappos 10 Core Values and says a bit about how each was expressed, but there is not enough meat there to satisfy me completely.  Is it really just as simple as empowering employees to use their judgment? Maybe.  It just seems like there must be more to it than that.  What, for example, might be done with a supervisor who just could not get off the backs of his direct reports? Hsieh describes how the hiring process was used to bring in people who would fit the culture, but how would they handle an employee who just didn't get it? What then?

Perhaps I'll find my answers as I further explore the tools Hsieh and co. make available through www.deliveringhappiness.com, which includes a guide for establishing core values that I am sure to use in my consulting practice.

This is a fabulous contribution to the "do good to do well" literature.  It makes me wish I was twenty years younger! I did a two page summary that you can download for free here.



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