Zappos is on a journey: a journey to become a 1000-year-old company. As we turn 20 years old this year, we believe we are just getting started.
But the reality is, in the landscape of company lifespans, we are old. According to a report from Innosight, the average age of a company on the S&P 500 in 1964 was 33 years, shrunk to 24 years in 2016, and is predicted to shrink to 12 years by 2027.
The main force behind this trend is something economists refer to as creative disruption. Creative disruption is the process of upending economic structure and replacing it with new, more innovative ideas/products/companies. Innovation in the market is happening faster and quicker. So is Zappos (and everyone else) doomed at age 20?
I mentioned Zappos is on a journey. Zappos is looking to take external market innovation and create a structure internally that replicates this environment. This doesn’t happen in an instant. It has been a journey to get to where we are today. And, we will continue to be a growing and innovating processes years from now. Our organizational structure evolution (Holacracy, Teal, market-based dynamics) is driven by metamorphosis in 5 main areas: profit to purpose, hierarchies to networks, controlling to empowering, planning to experimentation, and privacy to transparency.
Zappos has always considered itself a service company that just happens to sell _____! What fills in the blank? That isn’t for me or Tony Hsieh our CEO to decide. Well, it is, but it’s also for every other member of our organization. The blank can be filled by anyone at Zappos. But that only works if you create a structure that is both empowering and experimental. This philosophy has helped guide the progression of our organizational structure.
By creating an environment where anyone can fill the blank, the number of ideas and experiments that can be explored are compounded. This leads to a more diversified Zappos. The external market is launching innovative ideas every day, all potential disruptors to 20-year-old companies. Zappos is creating a space for these ideas to be launched from within. Continue Reading
Every marketing company claims to have “the answer.” But, solutions to marketing problems aren’t simple 2+2=4 answers.
Solutions to marketing problems are like learning acting: Sanford Meisner, one of the greatest acting teachers of the 20th century, would sometimes expel students from his class, not because they were bad actors and didn’t have a chance in the field, but because he knew he wasn’t the right teacher for them. Continue Reading
What makes a theatre production great is what makes a brand great. This shouldn’t be surprising: strong brands are expressions of a core idea that their customers love; and, great shows make us fall in love with language, a character, a relationship, an idea, or pure visual beauty—something that cuts to the core of what the show is really about.
If we want to know what a business is, we have to start with its purpose. And the purpose must lie outside the business itself. In fact, it must lie in society, since a business enterprise is an organ of society. There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.
Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management
At some point in the past, you developed a marketing strategy to create customers and your marketing tactics worked well and they became a standard practice. The purpose of business hasn’t changed since then, but the environment has. Continue Reading
Organizations continue to works towards flatter and self-managed systems where each individual is a self-actualized person. But for some reason, some known and some unknown the persona of the CEO continues to maintain a certain power. People hold the CEO to a super-human standard.
As people, we place high expectations on roles and the CEO is no exception.
Unfortunately, this makes the CEO positions susceptible to fear. Fear can be perceived as weaknesses by others so, in response, many leaders hold on to the mantra of, “Don’t admit to it. Don’t dwell on it. I am the boss and everyone relies on me.” Continue Reading
Here are four strategies for infusing your organization with greater optimism:
Be Aware of Negativity: Take action when you see negativity start to spread: When you notice your people harping on negative situations, help them change their state to break the rumination cycle. Consciously foster positive experiences to counteract the negative ones. Use humor whenever appropriate.
Celebrate Every Win, Big or Small: When your team experiences a victory, celebrate it. When someone does something positive or acts in alignment with your core values, give it attention. Encourage your team to celebrate wins of every size. Savoring positive experiences helps counteract the brain’s tendency to ruminate and overanalyze negative events. Celebrating even small wins helps you build positive momentum. On-the-spot recognition goes a long way.
Ask Empowering Questions: When you’re brainstorming with your team, it’s easy to focus on what’s wrong with an idea. Cultivate “value sensitivity” by asking people questions like: “What’s great about this idea?” “What can we leverage here?” “How can we build on this idea?” “What can we learn from this?”
Always End on the Positive: When giving feedback to employees, many leaders have a tendency to leave things on a negative note instead of a positive one. Always end on a positive note that gives clear direction to build momentum. Feelings of shame and guilt hinder learning and performance. Compassion and support promote positive change.
By: Greg Breeding – President & Creative Director at Journey Group.
I’ve served as an art director for the U.S. Postal Service for seven years. It’s a curious and delightful job and one that has brought me a great deal of creative fulfillment throughout my tenure. The process is quite fascinating, involving not only folks from the Postal Service but also American citizens who’ve been selected to help decide appropriate stamp subjects. Yet, as an art director, one of the most rewarding aspects of my work is developing relationships with the artists themselves.
The stamps I art direct — such as Johnny Cash or Batman — are typically assigned to me, but every now and then, I get to pitch my own ideas. There’s an open call to propose topics for ongoing series of stamps, such as those that feature the American flag or celebrate holidays or love. While there’s no shortage of creative ideas floating around my work/life atmosphere, as a designer and as president at Journey Group, it’s knowing when to capture the right idea that’s key — and then where to find the perfect collaborator.
Part I: Art directing and designing a stamp
The Love series started in 1973 with a stamp by pop artist Robert Indiana, and stamps from the series remain a favorite choice for those mailing valentines, wedding invitations or love letters. As an art director, Love stamps present an engaging creative challenge. You want to pitch something fresh and new, but the subject also needs to appeal to a broad audience — and reference the soaring emotion of love without being too saccharine or melodramatic.
As I was pondering ideas I had banked away, my colleague, Mike Ryan, creative director at Journey Group, campaigned to have Anna Bond design a stamp.
Anna Bond, for those who may not recognize her name, is the creative genius behind the wildly successful Rifle Paper Co. I first met Anna about 10 years ago when she was just beginning her design career and have kept up a long-distance friendship with her since then.
“Since I was little, it’s been my dream to design a stamp. I’ve always said that’s one of my top-five career goals.” — Anna Bond, Rifle Paper Co.
I, along with the rest of the world, love her vintage-inspired illustrations and aesthetic sensibilities. Upon hearing Mike’s suggestion, I knew she’d be the perfect illustrator for a Love stamp, and I had a hunch she would be up for the challenge. In 2015, Journey Group interviewed Anna for a feature story for the Postal Service website Beyond the Perf.
When Anna was 8 years old, she was given her grandfather’s stamp collection in a binder.
“I didn’t realize it, but looking back, it’s obvious that I was drawn to the graphic design of stamps,” she said. “Since I was little, it’s been my dream to design a stamp. I’ve always said that’s one of my top-five career goals.”
With the help of the team at Journey Group, I was excited to help make that dream come true.
The work
I struck up a conversation with Anna at a stamp show in New York, and we met for coffee to brainstorm about the future stamp. She was immediately on board, and I was delighted about the collaboration that was taking shape.
A floral design felt like both the obvious and right choice for this stamp, based on the series and on Anna’s aesthetic. I am also a sucker for hand-lettering, and I have always loved Anna’s loose, cheerful script on her stationery. We agreed that the design should be in the middle of the plate, with the word “Love” written in her script and surrounded by her signature flowers.
Anna began to work her magic, and in short order, we had two leading designs, one version on a dark green background and one on a white background. The stamp with the white background was ultimately chosen as the final design.
Anna and I were present for the First Day of Issue ceremony in Love, Arizona, and I was delighted to receive affirmation that Anna was the right choice. The audience was composed of many stamp collectors, as well as many fans of Anna’s work.
Part II: Translating stamp art
We were thrilled with the final stamp, and we were equally excited to extend the stamp’s success to another product that we work on at Journey Group: the Postal Service magazine USA Philatelic. For the spring 2018 issue, we knew that the Love Flourishes stamp would make a gorgeous and eye-catching cover.
Journey Group’s art director Ashley Walton and production designer Brittany Fan were enlisted to translate the stamp art to the magazine. Inspired by the stamp artwork, Ashley wanted to make the two-dimensional design come alive by using actual flowers and paper cut-outs for the cover.
With this concept in mind, Ashley and Brittany trekked to Washington, DC, to hunt for flowers at wholesale markets. A particular challenge was finding flowers with the right color, texture and feeling that would evoke Anna’s illustration — without knowing the exact names of the seemingly countless floral varieties.
Arriving with their arms full of flowers, Ashley and Brittany worked with photographer Len Rizzi to prepare the shoot in his studio, including laying out the design with hand-cut paper shapes and type, styling the flowers and mounting them in foam core, and managing consistent shadows, despite the differing depths of the material.
The team wanted to conjure up a cover that was soft, romantic and delicate and yet would stand up well next to Anna’s original artwork.
From start to finish, we were delighted with how the partnership with Anna Bond played out. As a person who works intimately with stamps, it was a pleasure to work with someone who still loves using stamps and sending mail through the post.
“It’s so special to receive a letter in the mail these days,” Anna said. “I’m used to getting mail that I don’t want to open, so I think a letter automatically makes you feel good because you know someone put effort into it. It shows they care.”
Anna’s effort and care with this design emphasizes the key to any successful creative collaboration. As an art director, what I’ve learned is that you give someone like Anna basic parameters and boundaries, and then you let her go. That’s when it goes well. The hardest and best thing I do as an art director is select the right artist. If I do that, the work flows beautifully. Choosing Anna for this project was the right call for the right time, and I loved helping her work find its way onto a stamp.
About the Author of this Post:
For Greg Breeding, strong communication—visual or spoken—is always about clarity. A graphic designer at heart and by trade, Greg’s decidedly Swiss perspective is shaped by years designing magazines, art-directing postage stamps for the U.S. Postal Service and taking an annual pilgrimage to (where else?) Switzerland to study the craft. Since co-founding Journey Group in 1992, he’s brought strong design thinking to many client relationships, building rapport through genuine interest, well-told stories and a subtle Southern drawl.
Focusing primarily on short-term goals can hinder long-term motivation because achieving short-term goals without an overarching purpose doesn’t result in lasting feelings of fulfillment.
When companies focus primarily on short-term goals, it’s usually because they don’t have a strong company vision. For them, what has to get done tomorrow is more important than what the company should become in the future.
When the goals are short-term, employee motivation comes in two forms:
Extrinsic: This type of motivation makes employees achieve a goal they didn’t set and likely perceive as arbitrary, like increase revenue by 5%. It doesn’t push them towards anything they want: they do it purely because they have to do it and their job relies on getting it done. It has no joy. The motivation is purely functional; there is no personal choice.
Goal-Based: This type of motivation is based on goals employees want to achieve, like winning an award or buying a Porsche. They will work hard so they can make enough money to buy the car. It only has joy until they achieve it. After they achieve the goal, it no longer inspires them and future goals need to become more extreme to be equally motivating (I got a Porsche, now I need a Lamborghini).
Neither of these forms of motivation helps people grow towards being the best versions of themselves: they don’t help them self-actualize. These motivations only make them act out of necessity or perceived necessity.
Not only do they hinder employee growth, but they also lead to dysfunctional organizations: Most companies that focus on short-term goals force an extrinsic goal—like grow sales by 5%—on a person and the person will attempt to achieve it by convincing themselves that they are working to achieve some goal that is unrelated to the company’s goal—like a new Porsche. The person isn’t motivated by what the company seeks to achieve and the company’s actions show they don’t care about what the employee wants to achieve personally. This creates employees that don’t care about the success of the company and only care about achieving some reward that motivates them temporarily. And, it leads to a lack of shared goals among team members and discord in an organization.
Companies with long-term, purpose-driven visions can align themselves with the journeys the employees want to go on in their own lives and grow with the employees toward a shared goal.
This isn’t to say short-term goals aren’t important—they are because they create concrete things to work towards—but they must be motivated by a purpose-driven vision shared by the company and its employees.
Is your vision strong enough to motivate your employees? Are you hiring employees whose personal visions overlap with your long-term vision?
P.S. If you need help creating a company vision that will help create highly motivated employees, we’ve created The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Company Vision. Find out more by clicking here.
By: Tyler Williams – Lead Link of the Brand Aura Circle, Zappos
Here is our mindset shift at Zappos. One of our insights is that our current customers are incredibly loyal and love us. Similar to how my mother loves JC Penney and literally asks for a JC Penney gift card for every birthday, anniversary, Christmas, etc.
I remember my mom got really disappointed when JC Penney tried to revamp their stores and branding to appeal to a younger demographic. This backfired on them in two ways. One the younger generation was not impressed, and would rather be caught dead than shopping in one, and it alienated their hyper-loyal, an aging customer.
So how does a brand stand the test of time?
Is it by taking your marketing dollars and trying to appeal to the up and coming consumer, and continually making that evolution? Is it clever ad campaigns, social content, environmental or social responsibility, new value props? While those things can help prolong your companies life, I don’t believe its what will make your brand be around 1000 years later.
Since I’ve been leading our Brand Aura here, I’ve been racking my brain on how we can penetrate authentically into these markets. Sports, Esports, Streetwear, Fandom/Nerd Culture, etc. The list of opportunities is endless, and as our customer base ages, but continues to love us, do we walk away from them and cater to these other markets? Then I started imagining how I would see JC Penney coming into these markets, and it wasn’t a pretty thought. So how can we do it?
As a Zapponian it’s been drilled into my very soul that we are Customer Service first!! In fact, we call ourselves a Service company that just happens to sell (fill in the blank). Once I completely put myself in the Customer Service Mindset, it became evident. The purest service is to be in service to others.
So I believe the secret to an aging brand (we are the old farts in the e-commerce space) is to step behind others and make them the hero.
About the Author of this Post:
Tyler Williams is the Lead Link of the Brand Aura Circle; a circle that specializes in creating Zappos’ unique and quirky persona via events, campaigns and experiences nationwide. Tyler is also the long-time company Fungineer, responsible for such popular internal events as “Boots and Shorts Thursdays” and “Tutu Tuesdays.”
