Cambridge Business Association
The Power of WOW
Book

The Power of WOW

How to Electrify Your Work and Your Life by Putting Service First

Mark Dagostino and Tony Hsieh
BenBella, 2019
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Visionary
  • Engaging
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

According to Zappos CEO and bestselling author Tony Hsieh, businesses that aspire to thrive need to get out of their comfort zone. Zappos radically transformed corporate culture by empowering employees to self-organize and placing employee happiness and service at the center of its business model, explain Hsieh and Mark Dagostino, urging readers to rethink the corporate paradigm. While many corporations prioritize profits over people, Zappos demonstrates the shortsightedness of that approach, calling on businesses to invest in their most valuable resource: people.

Summary

Zappos drives corporate culture change by aligning passion, purpose, and profit.

The idea of a for-profit business valuing individuals over money might seem like an oxymoron. Yet online shoe retailer Zappos is putting service at the center of its business model, revolutionizing how brands do business by focusing on the happiness of stakeholders. This includes customers, employees, shareholders, and the broader Zappos community. Zappos’s main goal is to transform business culture, placing a service ethos at the core of all its interactions.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh transformed the company with the “WOW culture,” which centers the business model not simply around profits but also on purpose and passion at all levels. While Amazon owns Zappos, the company operates independently. It protects this unique culture, maintaining a clear separation between Amazon’s customer service and Zappos. Zappos empowers employees to self-organize and take on leadership roles by supporting them in doing work that they’re passionate about and good at — even if it differs from the work they hired them to do — because...

About the Authors

Mark Dagostino is a seven-time New York Times bestselling author and a former senior writer with People magazine. He’s appeared on platforms such as CNN, Today, The View, and Inside Edition as a celebrity expert.Tony Hsieh is Zappos CEO, as well as the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling book Delivering Happiness.

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