Delivering Happiness - Deanna Mitchell

Deanna Mitchell

Management Book Review

14 February 2012

Hsieh, Tony. Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose. New York: Business Plus, 2010. Print.

Main Points

Zappos.com CEO, Tony Hsieh, provides a more personal and less instructional guide in comparison to most administrative books. Most of the topics discuss administrative ideas using real life experiences that relate to business decisions and strategy. For example, his fondness for poker taught him to continually learn by educating himself, learn by doing, learn by surrounding himself with the talented and asking questions.

A common theme seen in his career is his constant pursuit of happiness. Following college, Hsieh gained major success but often found himself unenthusiastic at his jobs (his first web project LinkExchange sold for $265 million to Microsoft) but he couldn’t find contentment. Hsieh knew there was impact to be made; but he couldn’t do it working under Microsoft.

“I had to stop chasing the money, and start chasing the passion.”

This embodies the overall message of the book. His yearning to do something larger leads the reader to his happiness framework known as “Three Types of Happiness.” This framework, adapted from Maslow’s well-known hierarchy of needs, is a ladder of levels of happiness - the higher the happiness is, the longer it lasts. The first step of Hsieh’s hierarchy is pleasure, which is easily acquired but hard to keep (in a business model, profits replace pleasure). Passion, the second step, is when performance meets engagement. Just as the peak of Maslow’s hierarchy is self-actualization, Hsieh proposes that the highest state of happiness is being part of something bigger than yourself - a higher purpose.

Hsieh realizes this is the business approach he unconsciously had from the beginning. He wished provide career satisfaction for himself, and happiness for his customers and employees. Of course, the book shares endless advice on management - the major foci being creating culture and customer service.

Discussion of author’s approach

Initially it seems as if Hsieh was a motivational speaker rather than a businessman. As it continues, you realize that is his business strategy - positivity. This is seen in Zappos’s key standards: improving customer service, strengthening culture, and investing in employee’s personal and professional development.

“ We thought that if we got the culture right, then building our brand to be about the very best customer service would happen naturally.”

Investing in the employees resembles Elton Mayo’s Hawthorne Theory in which employees perform better when they know administration is watching. Zappos employees know administration is observing their work in order to aid employee development.

In relation to the Management Grid developed by Blacke and Mouton, Hsieh focuses too much on “concern for people” and not enough on “concern for task”. Even though Zappos’s people-focused administrative approach has been successful, the grid concludes Hsieh is a “Country Club” leader rather than a “Team Leader”.

This points out flaws within Hsieh’s unconventionally positive approach to administration. The strategy may be too optimistic and fail to foresee potential crisis in which negative action is necessary.

Recommend?

Delivering Happiness is a sufficient (I give it a “B”) learning tool for PR Administration students. Though Hsieh’s first-person approach is insightful, some may prefer more objective advice on how to successfully manage a company. Personal narrative relates the reader with the author and provides a learning opportunity through participation in his fun journey. For some it may seem difficult to filter through the personal fluff and digest the administrative tactics that led Zappos to achieving present success. I enjoyed the read and appreciate the managerial guidance Hsieh provided (especially the “Three Types of Happiness”), but it didn’t focus on administration tactics as much as I anticipated.