photo credit: Lars Plougmann

It’s a common understanding of how to run a company that you must be market-driven, and be responsive to customer feedback. And as a customer advocate, I would certainly never be one to deny that customer input and market validation are important. But the other side of that coin is that you’re in business not only to make money, but to develop yourself, enjoy the rewards of a job well done, and hopefully leave this world having enjoyed yourself and given enjoyment to others.

To fully live that ideal might mean turning some work down. It might mean making tough decisions about when to leave your current job and start your own company. It might mean passing on certain investors who don’t share your views on how business should be conducted.

But in order to make those tough decisions, you have to really know yourself and your values. Not just personally, although that of course is important too, but as a company. What does your company stand for?

I recently ran across an article at Both Sides of the Table that dealt with this very idea on the way to becoming a more customer-centric organization:

So I started thinking about the ‘Inside Out’ organization. This is the company that lets outsiders have a glimpse of what is going on in the sausage factory. Being transparent about our workload, our struggles, our fund raising, whatever. Letting our customers and the market know that we were a real organization with real people rather than a pre-packaged, pre-processed marketing machine.

It may be scary, but there’s a lot to be said for letting your insides show. You may end up attracting more appropriate customers in the long run.

photo credit: Furryscaly

Often when we talk about risk in the business world, it’s a Bad Thing. As in “minimizing risk.” “Managing risk.” And so on.

And sure, when you have an idea where you want to go and how you want to get there, risk is anything that can keep your plans from succeeding.

But let’s be honest: in our personal lives, risk can be kind of fun, too. Risk that isn’t out of proportion with potential reward is what makes life fun.

So why aren’t we more excited about taking risks in business? Why isn’t there a “risk advocate” instead of a “risk manager”?

I suppose it’s because predictability is key to efficiency and we think of efficiency and all kinds of other attributes like profitability and scalability as being nearly the same. In truth, they’re not. They may well relate, and there may be strong correlations between companies that have predictable results and those that are profitable, but there are some big, profitable companies that have taken some pretty huge risks, too.

But I’m not even advocating huge risks. I know people’s jobs can be jeopardized by bad decisions. But even little everyday risks can be rewarding. Like answering your phone when you don’t know who’s calling.

Sure, when you’re deep in the process of meeting a big deadline, it can be beneficial to tune out things like phone calls, emails, and so on. But when you emerge, it may be time to reconnect with the outside world.

The benefits that can come from an unexpected connection with a sales prospect, an unsolicited job candidate, or even someone who called the wrong extension are too random to predict, but they do happen.

We don’t often get to have serendipity in our business lives, because we don’t often allow ourselves the unpredictability.

This week, why not take a small risk or two, and see what happens?

Happy Monday!

Nicholas Holland and Jackson Miller, pictured here, launched gpsAssassin, a location-based multi-player iPhone game, after developing the company and product at last year's Nashville Startup Weekend

photo credit: tmgstudio

This weekend I participated in Nashville Startup Weekend. That’s right: the idea behind this event is to start up a business in a single weekend.

My team (which ranged over the course of the weekend from as many as 8 people at the beginning to as few as 3 people still going at 5:00 AM after Saturday’s work session, and back up to 6 when we presented our new company on Sunday evening) successfully scoped, designed, and built a prototype of a web-based application dealing with group food ordering. We also developed the business plan, marketing plan, and financials for both a bootstrapped and an invested approach all between Friday evening and Sunday afternoon.

This is not merely an exercise; this is a viable business that we will be launching in the coming weeks. Our presentation even garnered investor interest.

In short, over the course of a weekend, with the help of pizza, beer, coffee, and Red Bull, a new company was developed with a marketable product and a business model that is cash flow positive in month 1, profitable in month 3, and can either produce dividends for its creators or become an attractive acquisition target in the months and years to come. And that was only one team: several other companies formed this weekend, too.

The big takeaway from the weekend is this: it doesn’t necessarily take a lot of time or money to do something awesome. What it takes is focus and determination to get it done.

The next time you question whether something can be done, or whether you have the time or resources to do it, maybe try figuring out what you can do. And then do it. And then figure out a way to make the next step happen. And then do it.

It sounds simple enough, but inertia can be hard to overcome. Making that first step is challenging, but incredibly rewarding when it leads to a finished product.

Happy Monday! Here’s hoping your week is full of focus and determination.

photo credit: rahims

We all have them. You give them out pretty frequently, quite possibly at parties. And you probably get a ton whenever you meet up with people.

Get your mind out of the gutter – I’m talking about business cards.

They say so much while saying so little. They’re such a part of the corporate world that we all know what to expect when we see one. Can one really be idealistic when it comes to this staple of society?

Perhaps. That’s exactly the question Matt Cheuvront asks when he challenges his readers to be memorable. His trick? A hand-written business card.

Guy Kawasaki calls attention to the handiwork of Justin Ruckman. These cards are easy on the eyes while cutting to the chase.

Of course, there’s a difference between being memorable and being ridiculed. What you might do by attempting to stand out may have you falling flat on your face. What’s important to remember, then, is the element of risk. No one was ever remembered for playing it safe. No one became remarkable or outstanding by maintaining the status quo.

So, whether it’s your business card or your business suit, your business model or your business plan, be willing to take an appropriate risk. Doing so may open you up to an entire new world of contacts, opportunity, and possibility.

Tell us: how do you take risks at work? How do you know which ones are worth taking?

Brooks Bell, CEO of Brooks Bell Interactive

Corporate Idealist: Thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little, if you would, about how Brooks Bell Interactive came to be and what the company does.

Brooks: Brooks Bell Interactive was founded about 5 years ago, and was spun out of my first company, NovelProjects. At the time, NovelProjects focused on corporate website design and had a considerable amount of success. In 2003, we started to work with AOL on data-driven online marketing rather than website design, and it quickly became our biggest focus. It made sense to spin out another company with a new positioning to maximize our opportunity in online marketing.

Brooks Bell Interactive continues to focus on data-driven online marketing. We do strategy, design and A/B testing for acquisition and retention programs in the online subscription space. Our clients include Chase Bank, Dow Jones and AARP.

Corporate Idealist: I understand you went through a risky process relatively recently of hiring an executive team and “replacing” yourself in running the business. How did you arrive at the decision to do that, and how did you adjust to the change?

Brooks: I had hired several new designers last year, and was also still managing several key accounts, acting as our creative director and also overseeing operations. I was directly managing 14 people, and quickly became overwhelmed. My team wasn’t getting the direction or training they needed, and I had very little time or mental capacity to work on the business rather than in the business. I knew that this status quo was far from sustainable and had to make the choice either to invest in a management layer or to scale back my team. Scaling back the team wasn’t really an option, so it was clear that making the investment in my executive team was a step that I needed to take for the company to really have a shot at long-term success.

Looking back, it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Our revenue is up 50% this year, stress levels are down, and we are more productive than ever.

Corporate Idealist: You’ve previously talked about the process of defining your core values and culture, and what a challenge that was. What made it so challenging?

Brooks: Defining core values was a challenge at first. We were a simple transactional company in our early years: a new project would come in, we would do it, and get paid, and move on to the next project. I didn’t feel a strong sense of control over where the company was going and couldn’t easily articulate why we were in business. So, core values seemed irrelevant to me.

This perspective changed in 2006 when I did a retreat with two of my early senior employees. We used the later chapters in E-Myth for our retreat and started with the Primary Aim. It was a powerful, eye-opening exercise that helped me dramatically change my point of view on the company. We established our core values to align with my own personal values, and started to use them as a foundation on which to base our future decisions. The company’s culture started to shift almost immediately, and a new, much more motivated and positive company attitude emerged.

Corporate Idealist: How did defining your core values contribute to being able to run a successful company? Has company culture been an important element in your success and maturity as a business?

Brooks: We defined our core values at the same time that we articulated our company purpose and vision. The effect of those three things was somewhat intangible, but it shifted a perception away from ‘I’m working for Brooks’ to working for a deeper, more individually fulfilling vision. It allowed people to buy in to the company’s purpose, spending energy on something that was in line with their own values and more satisfying than just a paycheck.

Core values, purpose and vision have absolutely helped us in our maturity, resulting in a more long-term approach to decision making, as well as more consistent success in recruiting and hiring.

Corporate Idealist: What did the road to maturity as a business owner and business leader look like for you?

Brooks: I would say that I’m still on this road to maturity as a business owner and leader, as I learn ways to improve myself and my leadership skills every day. The road to where I am now has already been quite a journey. My adventure has included incredible winning years, stressful losing years, partner challenges, constant growth, HR headaches, increasingly high standards and a quickly evolving role in it all.

I am currently managing an incredibly smart, capable team, and my new challenge is to stay ahead of them and provide the direction, goals, and accountability framework they need to perform. It’s tougher than you might think; they really keep me on my toes.

Corporate Idealist: What have been some of the stumbling blocks or setbacks you’ve experienced in growing your company?

Brooks: The biggest challenge for us was to manage the evolution of our biggest client, AOL. In 2006, they represented over 70% of our revenue. In 2007, they were around 15%. In 2008, they were an almost negligible percentage of our revenue. AOL was undergoing massive corporate changes in that period, so we suspected that this might be the case. We needed to replace that revenue quickly to maintain our momentum. In addition, we had been accustomed to servicing only 2 or 3 large clients at a time, so we also needed to build the architecture to be able to service a much larger and more diverse client roster.

It was not an easy task. I feel proud of what we’ve accomplished in the last 2 years. We now have a strong, diversified client base, a well-oiled infrastructure and a well-trained team of professionals to ensure a consistently high level of service.

Corporate Idealist: As we talk about Corporate Idealism on this blog, it’s about doing meaningful work, being creative in business, and focusing on the customer. A lot of your company’s history seems to parallel those values. Do you have any words of wisdom for our readers about being a real-world “Corporate Idealist” and business leader?

Brooks: Yes! I was recently reading some notes from a speech I gave to college students when I was a recent graduate myself. I had just started my first company and was just beginning to have a taste of success. I gave some advice back then that I still think is so relevant on many levels. I said “Success is not about our design (some people have questionable taste anyway), it’s not about our technical capabilities (some may not even realize that what we’re doing is as strategic as it is). We are successful only because we do everything we can to make the right people happy.”

I think this is still relevant because the ‘right’ people are often your customers, your client’s customers, your manager, your CEO, and your investors. No matter what business you’re in, success almost always boils back down to making the right people happy.

photo credit: Kate O’

During my run this morning, the air was so muggy I felt like I was pushing my way through a hot, damp sponge. It was that sweating-the-moment-you-step-outside kind of heat. I was oh-so-very tempted to chuck it and go back to the cool comfort of my home.

But I finished my run, and when I did step back into the house, the coolness was a reward so wonderful I almost cried.

You know that feeling, I bet. That precious feeling that the work you are doing is not a waste; that all the times you stuck with a difficult task, you made the right decision; that it was all worth it.

When was the last time you felt that way at work? What was the project or problem you were pushing your way through? What was your reward? A promotion? A pat on the back? Or even just the quiet knowledge that you did the right thing?

If you knew for sure you’d enjoy the outcome, what great and difficult tasks could you take on this week?

What’s not to love?

So I was delighted to have the opportunity to interview Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, for Corporate Idealist. The following responses provide insights into what it’s like to lead a truly innovative and customer-centric company… that just happens to do over $1 billion in gross sales.

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com

Corporate Idealist: Thank you for agreeing to this interview. In previous interviews, you’ve mentioned that you got into the shoe business because it looked like such a great opportunity — a $40 billion market. Did you have any concept at the time that you might differentiate the company through customer service, or did that evolve with time?

Tony: Back in 1999, there really weren’t any great destinations online for buying shoes. After learning that it was a $40 billion market in the US, and 5% of it ($2 billion) was being done through paper mail order catalogs, it seemed like a good investment opportunity. I got involved with Zappos about 2 months after it started.

From the beginning, we’ve always thought that customer service was important. But it wasn’t until 2003 that we decided we wanted the Zappos brand to not just be about shoes. Instead, we decided that we wanted the Zappos brand to actually be about the very best customer service and customer experience. Once we made that decision, we started making a lot of changes to our business to be even more customer-service focused.

Corporate Idealist: You’ve also stated that roughly 75% of your business on any given day is from repeat customers. Was the realization that repeat business was going to be your sweet spot something that came about by accident when reviewing business intelligence data, or were you actively trying to cultivate a loyalty- oriented business?

Tony: We stumbled into it accidentally. In the early days of the company (we were founded in 1999), we were unable to raise funding so we weren’t able to spend a lot of money on expensive marketing campaigns. As a result, we were forced to focus more on our existing customers. What we found was that the more we invested into customer service and the customer experience, the more loyal they were, and the more we grew from word of mouth. Today, we take most of the money we would have spent on paid marketing or advertising and invest it into the customer experience instead.

Corporate Idealist: What challenges did you have to overcome to make the company truly able to focus on customer service and customer experience?

Tony: During the first few years, there were many times when we we didn’t have enough money to pay our own employees, but we had such a passionate and dedicated group of employees, that many of them decided to forgo or reduce their salaries because they all believed in the long term potential of the company. If it weren’t for the passion of our early employees, Zappos wouldn’t be around today.

Corporate Idealist: Have you ever had to debate with other executives or with your board of directors about the costs associated with providing an excellent customer experience? If so, how has that been resolved?

Tony: Like any other business, we still have financial goals we need to meet in order to keep our shareholders and board of directors happy. Our approach has been to maximize the amount we invest in the customer experience and our company culture while still meeting our financial goals. There are always things we can do to make our customers happier… for example, in theory we could offer same day delivery for every customer. But it wouldn’t make sense from a financial perspective, so we don’t do that.

Corporate Idealist: Turning our attention to the employee experience, your hiring practices are famously steeped in Zappos culture and oriented towards retaining the right people through the on-boarding process. There’s a clear customer benefit in all this, but it seems that there is an employee benefit, too, in working around people who share a vision and a positive attitude. What indicators can you describe (such as retention, etc.) that this approach is working as intended?

Tony: Our turnover rate for employees varies by department (for example, turnover in the warehouse is higher), but when you compare each department with the same department in other companies, we’ve found that it’s generally lower, which saves the company money in the long run.

Corporate Idealist: You’ve said that when you decided to move operations to Las Vegas in 2004, it was due to difficulties finding customer service people in San Francisco. Yet it seems as if Las Vegas has come to be part of the company identity, as well — visiting conventioneers are often welcomed by Zappos by a party in a trendy nightclub. [Editor's note: I've been fortunate enough to attend one myself.] How did the employees who relocated from San Francisco adapt to Las Vegas culture, and how long did it take for Las Vegas to be part of the company identity?

Tony: When we first moved from San Francisco to Las Vegas, we had about 90 employees in San Francisco and about 70 ended up moving with the company.  Today, we have about 700 employees in Las Vegas, so the vast majority of our current employees joined Zappos after they had already lived in Las Vegas.

For the employees that moved from San Francisco, some of them decided that living in Las Vegas wasn’t quite right for them, so we offered to pay for their relocation back to San Francisco. Overall, I think most employees are pretty happy with the move.

Most customers don’t actually know that we are located in Las Vegas, so I’m not sure if it’s really a part of the company identity.

Corporate Idealist: Another big piece of the Zappos identity that was later to the game is Twitter. You yourself are clearly one of the most popular accounts on Twitter, and many Zappos employees use it as well. How did Zappos come to embrace Twitter, and how has it become a part of the culture?

Tony: We have over 400 employees on Twitter, and you can view their tweets at:

http://twitter.zappos.com/employee_tweets

As you can see, most of the tweets are not about business or marketing, but it’s a great way for us to connect on a more personal level with both employees and customers. It gives people a glimpse into our company culture, which is ultimately what our brand is all about.

Corporate Idealist: Corporate Idealism, as we espouse it on this blog, is all about creative business, meaningful and satisfying work, and an unrelenting focus on the customer, none of which do we believe contradict the ability to make money. The Zappos story epitomizes that. Do you have anything to add for our readers about being a real- world Corporate Idealist?

Tony: I would say rather than focus on what will make you the most money or be best for your career, figure out what you would be passionate for 10 years and go pursue that. A lot of people work hard at building a career so that one day down the road they think it will bring them happiness. And most of the time, when they finally accomplish their goal, they realize that it doesn’t really end up bringing happiness or fulfillment for the long term. One of the things that the research has shown is that people are very bad at predicting what will make them happy. If the ultimate goal is to achieve enduring happiness, it seems like it’s worth spending some time learning about the science of happiness so you don’t wind up in the same situation.

photo credit: plindberg

I was looking at a quote this morning…

Now bear with me. I know all the workplace motivational posters and feel-good quotes in email signatures get a bit much sometimes, but I still love a good quote and I do keep a collection in Evernote for reference. So much wisdom can come through in such a short space.

Such as this one I just glanced at and was struck again by:

An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field. – Niels Bohr

Along similar lines, I have a magnet that I keep near my desk that says:

Always make new mistakes.

I also keep a sign nearby that I was given when I worked in Germany that has an image of Snoopy (hey, it was a gift) and says (in German) something like:

As long as you learn new tricks, no one can call you an old dog.

My point is: learning and mistakes go hand in hand. What’s more, screwing up at work isn’t nearly as big a deal if you know how to recover from it. When you’ve made a mistake, if you admit to it immediately, apologize humbly, and help clean up your messes, you not only minimize the chance of being penalized for your error, but you’ve helped the organization learn from your mistake, too (even if no one else sees it that way initially).

photo credit: wotthe7734

To be clear, I’m talking about on-the-job learning and the mistakes that come from taking risks in your field, not about things like violating company policies out of carelessness, or showing up late to work.

I’m talking about facing a problem in your work and trying to think of the best way to solve it, and if the best solution you can think of is untried, try it.

Yes, you may fail.

But if you don’t allow yourself the risk of failure, how do you ever truly learn anything new?

And if you succeed, you could win big. You have not only chosen to do the thing you believed was best (something that can feel in itself like a reward), but you have shown the business something new. You and the rest of the company have learned. You might have even created a new best practice in your field.

Niels Bohr would approve.

So I leave you with this question: are you making enough mistakes?

Made any good mistakes lately? Tell us what you learned!

What’s your favorite quote? Tell us in the comments. We may feature it and credit you for sharing it!

photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography

At a party a few nights ago with the #RoadTwip crew, I was asked what the goal of this blog is. I said that I think there are steps people need to take, sometimes in sequence, sometimes all at once, to help themselves feel more empowered and like their work has relevance. Those steps aren’t always upward and they aren’t necessarily linear. But my hope for this blog is that it might provide some inspiration for deciding what that next step is, and then taking it.

Somewhat along those lines, Po Bronson wrote a fantastic article in Fast Company, debunking some myths about making changes in your career. In it he addresses the importance of having work that feels right:

Michael Dell once invited me to a meeting with several CEOs on the topic “What do employees want?” The CEOs took turns describing all the benefits they provided and how they gave out free M&Ms on Wednesdays and appeased their employees with stock options and free parking spaces. My point was essentially that employees don’t want M&Ms; they want to love what they do. I thought everyone would laugh at me, snickering “How indulgent! How naive!” Instead, the roomful of CEOs stood up one by one to agree: The value in their companies came from the employees who were motivated to be there. One passionate employee is worth 10 dispassionate ones.

Honestly, I think this is one of the best articles I’ve ever read on this subject. It’s definitely worth reading the whole thing.

Do you see progress in your professional life as a series of steps? Are you waiting to take the next one? Do you know what the next one is yet?

ReadWriteWeb links to a video of Steve Ballmer speaking at Stanford’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders program. He talks about, among other topics, why now is a great time to start a business.

He also encourages the audience not to be dissuaded by others’ skepticism:

“My parents thought I’d lost my mind to drop out of Stanford Business School to go to a company that makes software,” Ballmer said. “My dad said ‘what the heck is software’ and my mother said ‘why the heck would a person need a computer?’”

With so much pessimism about the economy, it’s always a good reminder that there are hidden opportunities in times like these.