Highlights from the Zappos Office Tour

Throughout my life, I’ve had opportunities to tour the headquarters of several large companies, but what I experienced today at Zappos was very unique. First, I have to thank Jody Padar and Jason Blumer, two awesome CPAs, for setting up the tour for me and 30-or-so other CPAs and accountants interested in learning about the Zappos culture. Zappos has established ten core values from which it develops its culture.  The third core value, create fun and a little wierdness, revealed itself immediately as we begain walking around the office.  The Zappos culture promotes individual creativity and self-expression, as evidenced by cubicles that were better decorated than any I had ever seen and a stairway where employees have written on the walls!   The picture to the right shows the “blogging bus” built around a set of cubicles which provides inspiration to the blogging team (and since I sometimes need inspiration, maybe I should try that)! At the end of the tour, Zappos gave us a “culture book” which contains, for the most part, the thoughts and feelings of Zappos’ employees.  The book provides evidence of the employees’ high morale and happiness they find in working for the company.  Some even wrote that they go to work smiling every day, and from what I observed in our tour today, I believe it.