I recently read Tony Hsie’s semi-autobiography on his journey to fame and success in Zappo’s. It’s a fascinating read because the premise of trying to deliver happiness is a far cry from my experience in and with most companies. Also, the book reminded me of two other books I read that opened my mind.

Maverick, Ricardo Semler

First Maverick by Ricardo Semler who in 1988, yes in 1988, wrote a book about how he transformed a Brazilian traditional family food business into one of the most unusual workplaces on the planet. Borrowing from Andrew Schonbek’s review of the book, Semler:

• Made each business unit small enough so that those involved understand everything that was going on and could influence the outcomes.
• Implemented a rounded pyramid organization structure with floating coordinators.
• Demonstrated trust by eliminating symbols of corporate oppression as well as the perks of status.
• Shared all information and eliminate secrets to increase involvement through information available to all employees.
• Made subordinates evaluate their bosses every six months.
• Made salaries public unless the employee requests that they not be published.
• Allowed employees to set their own salary.
• Shared 23% of pretax profits and made employees vote how the pool would be split.

The simple idea of making salary information public in 1988 was light years ahead of its time. Even now, I still have difficulty convincing companies to share where an individual’s salary stands in comparison with other’s in the salary scale.

The Democratic Enterprise, Lynda Gratton

And then in 2003 I read The Democratic Enterprise from LSE professor Lynda Gratton. That one blew me out of the water as it clearly highlighted the fact that the way we govern organisations isn’t in sync with how we live life. Lynda’s premise was to build organisations in which you treat employees as valued members, and move the relationship between employers and employees from parent-2-child to adult-2-adult. An enterprise where you create a shared purpose, give employees freedom to choose and give them autonomy to deliver.

Delivering Happiness, Tony Hsie

Tony Hsie’s book, Delivering Happiness fits in the same category since it takes the belief that happy employees lead to happy customers, who are more loyal and as a result spend more, thus increasing the profits of the company to a whole new level. As Tony states in the epilogue:

“My hope is that through this book, established business will look to change the way they are doing things, and entrepreneurs will be inspired to start new companies with happiness at the core of their business models. Taking with them some of the lessons I’ve learned at Zappos. My hope is that more and more companies will start to apply some of the findings coming out of the research in the science at happiness field to make their business better and their customers and employees happier.”

And although the concept resonates and will be applauded by employees, HR and many ‘enlightened’ CEO’s, it does raise a number of questions that I don’t have the answers too and would love to have your input on:

1. Should companies take responsibility, for what you normal would expect from civil society; the happiness of their employees?
2. Should companies deliver happiness where their single goal in life should be to provide the best possible return and re-invest this to create economic growth?
3. What is the impact of happy employees at work on the balance between work and life?
4. Is this happiness stuff not a ‘capitalistic tric’ for people to spend more time / energy at work than potentially at home? what does this mean for the social fabric of society?

Like I said I dont have the answers to these questions. I do have a gut feel and from my previous blogs am sure you know where I stand on this topic, but would love to get your input and trash this out.

Photo Credit: Rene Mensen via Compfight cc