benhuh!com
Internet Content Connoisseur
The Zappos Tour and Us
5746 days
One of the fundamental changes that technology brings us is a change in the way we do business. One of the least-understood impact of such change is a change in culture.
When I went down to Las Vegas for CES, I was invited on a tour of Zappos by two Vegas social media starlets Bill Cody and Chris Rauschnot. I started the Zappos tour with a healthy dose of skepticism: “they can’t really love working there that much, could they?”
I’ll cut to the chase: I walked out a believer with a handful of business books from their free library and an appreciation for the blank slate technology has given entrepreneurs like us.
The most important thing I learned is that Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, had an opportunity to reinvent the way shoes are sold as a result of the Internet revolution. But rather than using technology to define the business, he used the technology to enable a new culture in customer service — by re-examining every little detail. (If you want to read more about the Zappos culture, I would recommend that you Google it. There’s been enough written about it to fill several books. Then go take a tour and see for yourself.)
The most direct reaction from my revelations at Zappos would have been to run to the airport, draft a long email on the flight and implement the practice by edict. Wouldn’t that have been easy and effective? But most importantly, it would have been a waste of time. Cultural changes don’t work that way.
Coincidentally, for weeks before visiting Zappos, I have been obsessed with finding The Cheezburger Way to do recruiting and hiring. It’s been priority #1 for me for weeks.
So, on the way home from Vegas, I took a deep breath and decided that culture was best built by the people who work here — so I started asking our team questions about what kind of a company we wanted Cheezburger to be and we started experimenting on our recruiting process, because that’s where it all starts.
It may be subtle and hard to notice, but this job listing for a “Supercharger” is the result of 6 weeks of interviews, research and soul-searching. Can you spot the difference?
Follow up on why universal healthcare will benefit the startup ecosystem
3I recently did an interview with the Dave Shorr Show where I expanded on why guaranteed healthcare coverage means a better environment for startups.
It’s A Frap!
3We start our journey with “It’s A Frap! We can’t repel the flavour of this magnitude!”:
Then we end up with:
Don’t tell me I do nothing at work…
How to get tossed from a job application
12Last night, I posted an ad for the Managing Editor of Cute position at the Cheezburger Network in the SF Craigslist:
The Cheezburger Network (bringers of I Can Has Cheezburger?, FAIL Blog, There I Fixed it and like 30 more) are looking for a superstar editor to manage their new cute-oriented blogs:
Are you a content professional? Have you managed editorial teams and freelance writers? Have you grown consumer-focused communities? Negotiated content exchange and traffic development deals on the Web? ARE YOU AWESOME?
More info and application is here: Apply at http://cheezburger.simplicant.com/job/detail/4040-managing-editor-of-cute
The job DOES require relocation to Seattle.
I received several good candidates via our online job application management system. But I also received this webgem of a reply. While the email contained more professional information about this candidate, this was the very first line in the email:
From your ad copy, you sound like you have no money, and are goofy to work with…if you are (hopefully) a little more together than your copy would indicate, than maybe we should talk.
Let me count the wrongs…
1) No greeting. Hello. Hola, OHAI, or even YO! MTV RAPS would have been acceptable.
2) “you sound like you have no money” LOLWUT? Assuming makes an ass out of U. Not me. Maybe you’re saying that we’re poor as a compliment, but as a communicator you should know better than to lob ambiguous compliments.
3) “if you are (hopefully) a little more together” I assure you Mr. Jobseeking Professional Communicator, that this is potentially an explosive accusation. We are VERY much together and the use of a search engine would probably help. Also, RTFMing.
4) “than maybe we should talk”. Than? No Mr. Accomplished Communications Professional. The correct word to use in this case is “then” not “than”. Even, I, the runner of massibly misspellinged web network of kittens linguistics knows this.
5) You sent me an email. I provided a link to an online application site. As much as I enjoy a rule breaker now and “than”, but being a lazy jackass doesn’t win you any points.
Thanks for the consideration,
Ben Huh