Posts Tagged ‘acquisition’

It won’t happen.

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

It won’t happen.

I’ve had a couple of days now to absorb what’s really going on, and what’s going to happen, but there’s one thing I’m sure of: I won’t change. I’ve been reading a lot of articles and comments from all over and there are a lot of pessimists out there. No one believed we could do what we’ve done, but we’re doing it.

One of Zappos’ core values is to embrace and drive change, but I won’t change the way I personally do business.

I promise (and I’m sure others will join me) to continue to be open and honest in my day to day dealing with vendors, suppliers and customers. I won’t change how I treat my vendors as friends, not adversaries. I won’t change the way I’ll talk to customers, and I will continue to cherish every opportunity I get to service them.

Three thoughts on why it won’t happen.

1. Amazon is just as customer focused as we are, they wouldn’t be this successful otherwise.

2. I’ve spent the majority of my adult life now at Zappos, and the way we treat people is ingrained. I remember when vendors wouldn’t talk to us, and we had to be super nice to them. We don’t have to be super nice anymore, but we still are. Because it’s the right thing to do.

3. If Zapazon makes me change in what I feel is a negative way, I will probably just walk away, ending an almost 10 year relationship with Zappos.

I’m look forward to being part of the Amazon family.

Jeff Bezos mentioned in his video that he had a sales ringer, we had one too. It would make a ka-ching! sound of a cash register, and a goose would light up (the goose laid an egg!). It would go off every 10 or 15 minutes back then. We also turned it off when it got annoying. See, we already have another thing in common. Those were fun filled days, and so will be days ahead of us.