Comments on: Delivering Happiness Summary http://www.polarunlimited.com/2010/06/delivering-happiness-summary-2/ Digital Stategy, Innovation & Marketing Agency Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:53:05 -0400 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Meg http://www.polarunlimited.com/2010/06/delivering-happiness-summary-2/comment-page-1/#comment-1007 Meg Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:41:39 +0000 http://www.polarunlimited.com/?p=1432#comment-1007 good summary. good summary.

]]> By: scottsauce http://www.polarunlimited.com/2010/06/delivering-happiness-summary-2/comment-page-1/#comment-946 scottsauce Thu, 10 Jun 2010 23:12:14 +0000 http://www.polarunlimited.com/?p=1432#comment-946 What I think is really amazing about Tony is that he acted on what many businesses already know: it takes more to gain a new client than to keep an existing one; unhappy employees cost companies billions of dollars; people want to know you care... He just put dollar figures to those realities, e.g. it will cost the company far more than $2,000 to keep an unhappy employee, so the buyout makes tremendous financial sense!<br><br>I will say that part of what I saw in the story of Zappos is that building a business takes total commitment and a ton of cash. I wonder how many stories like Tony's (selling off the penthouse flat) end in bankruptcy for the company... I went to the 'book' site you noted above, and found an archive video from Inc. that interview Tony - and he readily admits that luck is certainly a part of success (though he then qualifies that with the old, "you make your own luck.")<br><br>In any case, to me the biggest take away from this book is that really caring about people - customers and employees - is really the BEST way to build a business. It is obvious that Tony - as a student of people - has gone to great lengths to understand people, their motivations, and their needs...and that is the type of extremely hard work most businesses never do.<br><br>Thanks, Steve, for your hard work in all of this! What I think is really amazing about Tony is that he acted on what many businesses already know: it takes more to gain a new client than to keep an existing one; unhappy employees cost companies billions of dollars; people want to know you care… He just put dollar figures to those realities, e.g. it will cost the company far more than $2,000 to keep an unhappy employee, so the buyout makes tremendous financial sense!

I will say that part of what I saw in the story of Zappos is that building a business takes total commitment and a ton of cash. I wonder how many stories like Tony's (selling off the penthouse flat) end in bankruptcy for the company… I went to the 'book' site you noted above, and found an archive video from Inc. that interview Tony – and he readily admits that luck is certainly a part of success (though he then qualifies that with the old, “you make your own luck.”)

In any case, to me the biggest take away from this book is that really caring about people – customers and employees – is really the BEST way to build a business. It is obvious that Tony – as a student of people – has gone to great lengths to understand people, their motivations, and their needs…and that is the type of extremely hard work most businesses never do.

Thanks, Steve, for your hard work in all of this!

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