Zappos Shows How Employees Can Be Brand-Builders†

Is This 'Overlooked Resource' as Important as Paid Ads?

Advertising Age, September 2, 2008 — Every year Zappos.com, one of the fastest-growing e-commerce sites, publishes a "culture book." Three hundred pages in length, the book includes written — and often gushy — testimonials from employees about what it means to work at Zappos.com.

"Our Zappos culture is truly the best work experience I have ever encountered," writes Chris V. "As a new employee of the company, I was blown away by how amazing the company really was. When I started I felt so unreal," notes David J. And on and on and on — you get the idea.

Schultz's Second Act Jolts Starbucks†

Already Intense, He Faces New Pressure: Peltz Owns a Stake

Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2008 — For two decades, Howard Schultz enjoyed uninterrupted success building Starbucks Corp. into a hip chain of coffee shops that richly rewarded shareholders.

But with profits off and the stock sinking, Mr. Schultz is cast in an unfamiliar new role: the person who must re-energize a company that has lost its edge. That has unleashed an intensity in him that is rattling the feel-good Starbucks culture.

Starbucks Takes a 3-Hour Coffee Break

Starbucks temporarily closed stores as it retrained workers and tried to revive “the romance of coffee.”

New York Times, February 27, 2008 — At Starbucks stores across the country on Tuesday night, it was time for the corporate version of re-education camp.

In its campaign to revive the intimate, friendly feel of a neighborhood coffee shop, Starbucks orchestrated the closing of 7,100 of its American stores at precisely 5:30 p.m. for a three-hour retraining session for employees

Southwest. Way Southwest.

New York Times, February 13, 2008 — Southwest Airlines, with a raucous corporate culture that is the exception in the grim airline industry, stands to look even wilder as some of its big competitors contemplate mergers that would only further muddy their corporate identities. For proof that Southwest is sticking with its oddball ways, look no further than its chief executive, Gary C. Kelly, who transformed himself from a buttoned-down C.P.A. to one of Corporate America’s most colorful bosses.

Slogans That Work

Some corporate catchphrases do their job--they inspire the employees and the suppliers to be innovators

Forbes, January 7, 2008 — Can you motivate the troops with a mere corporate slogan? Yes, if there is some substance behind it.

What makes a corporate slogan effective? A recent issue of the Strategy & Innovation newsletter summed up the matter this way: The most effective corporate catchphrases are sticky. In other words they should be understandable, memorable and effective in changing thought or behavior.

Magic Shop

Are your frontline employees going to save or kill your most important quarter? At Apple, nothing is left to chance

Fast Company, November 1, 2007 — Day one at my new job. Sporting white headphones, I am plugged into a computer watching Ridley Scott's awe-inspiring "1984" Macintosh ad, reviewing the company history, and getting pumped up about my new workplace. Like most of my coworkers, I'm already a loyal fan of the company, so starting this job will take my interest to the next level. I'm working as a Mac specialist at the Apple Store.

What happens between now and Christmas is the most important time for a very large sector of our economy: The National Retail Federation predicts almost $475 billion will pass between customers and merchants this holiday season, and whether such notable brands as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Gap (NYSE:GPS), Home Depot (NYSE:HD), Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), and many others think... continue reading

Behind T-Mobile's customer service success

She's blunt. She's flashy. And customer-service chief Sue Nokes is T-Mobile's secret weapon in a cutthroat industry

FORTUNE, October 1, 2007 — Marry me, Sue!" We've just pulled into the parking lot of Albuquerque's Jefferson Commons call center, home to 800 T-Mobile USA customer-service representatives, and outside there's mayhem. Hundreds of screaming, chanting people are standing in front of the building, bedecked in a wild array of hot-pink clothing (T-Mobile's signature color) ranging from T-shirts to cowboy hats to feather boas. They're waving signs, holding up camera phones, and generally acting like starstruck teenagers. One guy's wearing a fuchsia bathrobe; another, in a fluorescent-pink wig, is screaming, "We love you!" over and over.

All this booty shaking and flag waving might seem a bit extreme, given that technically today's event features a middle-aged woman on a routine visit... continue reading

The Water Cooler Is Now On The Web

With a nod to Facebook, large companies are starting in-house social networks

BusinessWeek, October 1, 2007 — Like many twentysomethings, the workers at Starcom MediaVest Group spend a portion of their workday on a social network. So in April, executives of the ad-buying firm figured, why fight it? They launched a network of their own, for employees only, called SMG Connected. Today, a little more than a third of the company's workers, or 2,060 people, have signed up for their own pages where they can create profiles that outline their jobs, list the brands they admire and describe their values by choosing from words such as "creativity" and "humor."

How To Make A Microserf Smile

While Google was turning heads with its employee perks, an unlikely manager took on morale in Redmond

BusinessWeek, September 10, 2007 — Steven A. Ballmer had an epic morale problem on his hands. Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT ) stock had been drifting sideways for years, and Google envy was rampant on the Redmond (Wash.) campus. The chronically delayed Windows Vista was irking the Microserfs and blackening their outlook. So was the perception that their company was flabby, middle-aged, and unhip

How Surveying Workers Can Pay Off†

Companies Are Finding Engaged Employees Become More Motivated

Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2007 — Houston KFC restaurant manager Joanthan McDaniel surveys his staff of about 20 every three months. Earlier this year, workers complained about their hours — some felt they worked too many, others too few. As a result, he now talks with them more often about scheduling.