Frequently, when you read an article about a business it focuses on “business” facts, such as earnings, future plans for expansion, and primary clients. Although you may find a few quotes from key personnel, you hardly get a feel for the executives who are often the driving force behind the business. This week, Xconomy interviewed Tony Hsieh (pronounced “shay”), Harvard graduate, and CEO of online shoe retailer Zappos. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/bpVycU)Hsieh was in Boston promoting his new book “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose.” In the book, Hsieh talks about key events in his life, including his sale of Link Exchange to Microsoft and his sale of Zappos to Amazon.com, as well as his personal philosophy.
During his interview with Xconomy, Hsieh stressed the importance of “following your passions,” saying that, “The other stuff will naturally fall into place if you actively pursue that.”
Hsieh went on to explain that when you do follow your passions
your personal life with become intertwined with your business life, evoking the adage “Find something you love doing, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” According to Hseih, he derives happiness from “anything that involves thinking outside the box, going against conventional wisdom.” Essentially, creativity is Hsieh’s passion.Hsieh offered a particularly interesting response when asked what his biggest mistake was as CEO of Zappos. “I would say the biggest category of mistakes that I’ve made, and we’ve made at Zappos, has been in hiring,” Hsieh confided. “We’ve been around for 11 years. If you add up the cost of all our bad hires and the bad decisions they made—they also hired people, and so forth—over 11 years it has cost the company well over $100 million.”
On the same topic, Hsieh said that his one question to the metaphorical “God of Business” would be “Where are the good people to hire?”
“Ultimately, for Zappos, that has been the limiting factor--being able to hire people that are talented enough and fit our culture, and being able to hire them fast enough,” Hsieh explained. “If we could hire them faster than we can today, we’d grow really fast. A lot of businesses look at what their sales projections are and so on, and try to hire people into it. Whereas I think we really do it more as, hire the right people, and the sales will naturally be a function of how many great people you have. We’re about 2,200 people now.” (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/dsKnh3)
As a recruiting professional myself, it was validating to read that, even with all of Hsieh’s notable experience, he sees employees as the key to his success or failure. Hsieh has witnessed firsthand how much time and money a company can save by hiring the correct people upfront. He also understands that “correct” does not simply mean that a candidate is “well qualified,” but also that she will embrace the company’s culture. In Zappos, or in any company, it is the qualified and passionate candidates that will lead the way to success.
[Sources: Xconomy - http://bit.ly/aHhxHK]
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