WK10 -Zappos Interview -Organizational Culture

Interview with Dena Mercera - Zappos

1.     What is your title at Zappos? In a few sentences tell us what you do?

My title is Buyer.  I manage the Western footwear and accessories portfolio for the site. Buying merchandise, merchandising the product on the site, manage inventories and sales plans, develop marketing, sales and growth strategies for the two portfolios I manage.

2.     The culture at Zappos is defined by the 10 core values. Do you think all the values play a role in your daily job functions? Is there a specific value that you see play out more than others?

The core values definitely play a role in my daily job functions. Deliver WOW through service is not just a core value Zappos strives for with our customers but with anyone and everyone we do business with. In merchandising, this is most commonly with our Vendor community. We view relationships with our Vendor community as partnerships vs. buyer and seller relationships which is more common in the retail industry. We are constantly working on building open and honest relationships with our vendor community with personalized access to our systems; daily email reports as well as constant communication our buying team.  

Merchandising pursues growth and learning through the Zappos pipeline department which provides classes on planning and forecasting sales plans, retail math, and building vendor relationships. There are also mentoring programs within the department which can give young buyers insight and new perspective on how to handle situations from others in the merchandising dept other than their direct peers and supervisors.  

When hiring, being passionate and determined is a core value we are looking for in candidates for the buying team. The buyers on our performance and athletic teams are prime examples of this practice. For example, our Outdoor buying team spends a lot of their personal time hiking and camping, our Running buying team spends time training and running in marathons and iron man competitions. They are passionate about the product they are buying in the personal lives which gives them a better understanding of the product they are buying and the perspective of our customer because they are the customer. 

3.     Research indicates that “organizations with strong cultures outperform ones with weak cultures” and are more effective.   Would you agree with this statement? Why?

         Yes, I would agree because a strong culture means you have a group of people that are all on the same page working towards the same top level goals. The culture at Zappos is very unique and while from an outside perspective may seem disorganized or goofy, it is a formula that works for us. Our 10 core values shape our culture and are able to stay relevant no matter what dept you are in whether it is technology development, customer service, logistics, merchandising, marketing or accounting.  The core values shape the relationships we have between departments and guide us towards our goals.

4.     Many companies use visible symbols to remind their employees of what the core values of the company are.  Does Zappos do this? How?

All 10 core values are on every employee’s badge which we carry on us at all times while on the campus for access into the buildings. There is a core value of the month that is displayed cafeteria each month that everyone strives to focus on for that month. A core value is referenced in customer emailing which comes out twice a week. We have a daily internal email called the Buzz that is a digital cork board of different projects and events that teams and groups of people are organizing or putting together. Every event at Zappos has at least one core value that is at its foundation. The core values are just always an inspiration around the office and in the 6 years I have worked there, I don’t think there has been a day where I haven’t heard at least one core value quoted by a co-worker. 

5.     What are some activities that enhance the company culture among Zappos employees?

     -    All hands meetings: after each quarter, the entire company gathers for an afternoon of company financials and updates, there is a Q&A section where anyone can ask our FACT team anything they would like. FACT is made up of: Fred Mossler, (no title) but used to be our VP of Merchandising, he is basically Tony’s right-hand man and has his hand in pretty much every dept at Zappos; Arun is our CTO, Chris is our COO/CFO and Tony our CEO. The all hands meetings usually incorporate skits and musical acts by employees and we also have guest speakers from business speakers, other CEOs, educational facilities and charities. The All Hands meetings are typically followed by a companywide happy hour as well were everyone co-mingles.

-         Rendezvous/ Talk to your daddy sessions… most departments have events like this that can happen as frequently as weekly. Rendezvous are events where Directors and dept heads make themselves available for one-on-one or group sessions to just get to know or bring up any questions or concerns you may have. Talk to your daddy sessions are similar, just in smaller focus groups and a little more formal. They are held at Nacho Daddy restaurant, hence the play on words.

-         The Western day I recently put together was a culture event that introduced everyone in the company to our Western Vendors as wells as taught them about the product. It was a day filled with games, activities, food and prizes.

-         Movember is an event the entire company is getting behind… besides many men growing mustaches, everyone colored or dedicated paper mustaches that are being incorporated into a growing mustache mural in our coffee shop.

-         Our coffee shop and cafeteria are free (with the exception of hot lunch, only $3) this is to create common areas for employees from different departments to congregate and intermingle on breaks.

-         Parades- when a team wants to promote an event, thank another dept or just be goofy, there are sporadic parades that can happen on any given day. Just last week, accounting and finance wanted to thank our 6PM team for having a huge sale and moving old inventory out of our warehouse, creating room for our holiday goods, so they had a Margaretville themed parade, went through the entire building and ended in front of the 6PM team announcing they had rented a margarita machine for them in appreciation.

6.     How does Zappos compare to any other job you’ve had in the past? Is it better or worse…or just different?

 

        Far better…. Zappos encourages people to be themselves. I feel there is genuine desire to help individual employees grow. Our core values encourage us to be better, kind people. My experience in the past has not been encouraging. I’ve dealt with many people who were only out for themselves, and companies who were more concerned with their financials than the people working very hard for the financial goals to be reached.

7.     Would you say that Zappos is a ‘job-oriented’ or ‘employee-oriented’ organization?

Employee oriented for sure. At Zappos we spend a lot of time, money and resources developing our employees. We can always train and employee how to do their job, but if the employee is not culture fit, they won’t flourish in the environment that we have. Furthermore, if we have an employee that is a culture fit, but unhappy in their job or has passion or interest in other departments, they are encourage to follow their interests. Most openings at Zappos are posted internally first before posting to the general public for this reason. I started at Zappos in our content department right descriptions for the site. Eventually, I realized I had more of a passion for buying and building a portfolio, which I was encouraged to pursue and switched departments about 2 years ago.

8.     In your opinion, are there any limitations to working within a culture like Zappos? What are some of the limitations?

         The only limitation I see is an individual, personal one. You either enjoy or can handle a crazy, loud environment where things are constantly changing and you are constantly being driving to do more with less or it is not something you can enjoy or handle. Some people need more structure, need quite to focus, prefer more personal time, or want a job that they clock in for 8 hrs and go home and never think twice about the place they work. If that is you, Zappos isn’t for you.

9.      Many people assume Zappos employees are always in sync with each other and because the culture is strong conflict is rare. How are disagreements among employees or teams handled?  

-        When you have a group of people who are very passionate, disagreements are bound to arise, but that is when our core values can also come into play.   Open and honest communication is the key to resolving most issues. Everyone has an open-door policy, so there is always, someone to gain support and perspective from as well as come to a resolution or compromise. Doing more with less, and being humble are also key core values that can be used in conflict resolution.  Realizing that while you may be passionate about something, your cause cannot always be priority number 1, and sometimes after talking it out and brainstorming with others your resolution will result in dealing with the resources we have, which is doing more with less.

It was my pleasure to interview Dena Mercera, who has worked at Zappos for six years.  As many of you know Zappos is well-known for having a strong culture.  Tony Hsieh, the Founder and CEO of Zappos, often says that “Culture is Your Brand” (Hsieh, 2010).  However, I had never asked an employee to talk about their company culture and practices.  After the interview with Dena I realized the company takes culture very seriously and the employees are strongly committed to their 10 core values.  It is also evident that Zappos is an employee-oriented organization, which is something that Hofstede refers to in his dimensions of organizational culture.

It was also interesting to hear Dena talk about the mentoring opportunities that are available within the company.  Dena’s testimony is in line with many of the concepts introduced in the article by Sorenson.  Sorenson mentions that strong organizational culture can be achieved through selection and socialization.  I think Zappos is a great example of both of these concepts.  As Dena mentioned, their hiring process focuses more on how future employees will align with the core values versus the job description.  In addition, all the events they have, including the All Hands meeting, are a good example of how the company encourages socialization. As Dena mentioned there are some limitations to working at Zappos, but overall I think it would be a fun environment to work in and the culture has contributed to the company's success.

Hsieh, T. (2010). Delivering Happiness: A path to profits, passion, and purpose. New

York, NY: Business Plus.

Sorenson, J. (2009). Managing Your Team. Harvard Business School, 1-6.

Hofstede, G. (2006). Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context. Online Readings in

Psychology and Culture.