I just completed “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.
The book was average (If you want a good summary go and Google the Zappos core values, you don’t need to read it). However, I do believe that Tony is truly a revolutionary CEO and can teach us all a lesson.
In an age where your competitive advantage can disappear overnight (think MySpace), we all need to focus on something that can separate us from everyone else.
That something is people.
Tony clearly demonstrates that by focusing on creating an amazing environment that is filled with passionate people you can achieve just about anything.
It doesn’t matter what you sell (he chose shoes), the key to building a great business has everything to do with how well you treat your people.
I couldn’t agree more.
In a hyper-competitive environment our prospects are trying to commoditize our products/services every day. We have to get different.
I would first look at your people. What if they were truly passionate about your company? Would your customers see the difference? Would your prospects?
CJ McClanahan is the Founder of reachmore, which provides leadership coaching for small business and executives. Email CJ at cjm@goreachmore.com for the latest on reachmore’s revolutionary executive coaching program, Summit.