Case Analysis: Zappos Human Resource Management and Business Strategy

Going by the success and good market reception from the public, the company invested further within the same line by establishing two more stores in 1979. At the time of its establishment, the company was headquartered in Marietta, Georgia. However, the headquarters were moved to Cobb County in Georgia. Since its inception, the company has been led by several CEOs who have guided that company to various phases of growth. After the retirement of Marcus and Blank in 2000, Nardel was appointed as the new chief executive officer. During his term that lasted up to 2007, the company registered mixed growth and development. Activities of the company were centralized, and the company went through various phases of efficiency in operations. Nardel introduced cost cutting mechanisms that involved cutting on the number of jobs. Although earnings doubled as a result of reduced expenses, employees, and in extension the customers, were alienated (Roush 2010, p. 1-5).

The system that Zappos.com uses is an electronic commerce information system. This system allows Zappos.com to provide great customer service, which is the company's mission. Many employees are needed to run the different components of the electronic commerce information system, some employees are new and others are seasoned workers. There are managers that train and oversee the production and service provided by employees.

The Zappos business model works through an online customer retailing services and provides a wide range of products to customers; however, the core strategy on how Zappos became a huge success is the Company’s customer service. Zappos attracts customers through exceptional service that has created a “WOW” philosophy and embedded it within the fabric and culture of the Company.

Zappos is an online shoes retailer that started its business in the year 1999. Later on the company had expanded its business to include the beauty products, clothing and even the housewares within its leading e-commerce website. This case emphasizes on the customer service department of Zappos Company and initially the business focused only on the drop ship method. Later on the company also increased the variety of the products. The company had also created a bricks and mortar storefront to expand the business and increase the sales of the business.

Zappos is an online shoe retailer that started its business in the year 1999. Later, the company had expanded its business to include the beauty products, clothing and even the housewares within its leading e-commerce website. This case emphasizes on the customer service department of Zappos Company and initially the business focused only on the drop ship method. Eventually, the company also increased the variety of the products. The company had also created a bricks and mortar storefront to expand the business and increase the sales of the business. The management of the company had taken an innovative approach to earn their required return on investment. They had emphasized on customer service and the employee training programs to gain

We've aligned the entire organization around one mission: to provide the best customer service possible”. At Zappos it’s all about customer service and this was and still is their main strength. Zappo is very good at applying the 4P’s with the 4 C’s that Porter talks about in our lecture. They even have an application for smart phone to make sure that their customer can buy even with their phones. With this model I believe that they can sustain their popularity and especially as long as they keep giving to their customer’s great experiences and products that they need for the best price. Last but not least, the company trains and exposes all its recruits to customer service regardless of their position. They also encourage innovation by motivating its employees to come up with passionate ideas which they go ahead and which help the sustainability of its customer service implement (Milligan & Smith, 2011).

Zappos.com employees live by the mission and vision statements. They exude the meanings in everyday work. The Zappos management has instilled these ideas by living them also. Every employee can recite these two statements along with the core values. One employee on the YouTube video “Zappos Company Culture” stated that the core values have become part of her values even outside of the company as she had found $40 that had been left in a cash dispenser and it dawned on her that she needed to turn it and “WOW!” the customer who had left it. Another employee on that same video stated that he represented the company in the office and outside in the world, so he lived the core values everyday all day (Gallucci, 2011). The Mission and Vision statements are displayed along with the core values on huge banners throughout the facility. Management seems to have brought a family-ness between the employees and allowed them to bond together in mission to become the best internet option for the customers. Zappos employees state that the management believes in taking care of the employees first. This philosophy spills out over to the customers in service excellence. Employees are empowered to make decisions without customer approval in the way of gift baskets, or thank-you cards for people whose

Zappos’ mission and vision statement is “to provide the best customer service possible. Internally, we call this our WOW philosophy.” Understanding how this primary task represents the firms purpose, Tony Hsieh looked to find the best strategy that could consistently allow them to provide “the best customer service possible” where their competition may fail to provide to their customers. Hsieh identified that good customer service to their customers means that they are happy and to be sure that the customers are happy it is important to make sure your employees are happy. Evidence has supported that happy employees lead to better performances and higher profits. Keeping this in mind Hsieh outlined and identified 10 “Family Core Values” in which Zappos develops their culture, brand, and business strategies from. The following are the 10 “Family Core Values”:

As part of the hiring smart philosophy, orientations can be simple to prepare and conduct. All it really takes is planning. It actually begins at the point of hire when the offer is first presented. The offer letter can include a welcome and a brief overview of benefits, time to report, who to report to and what to expect the first day, week and follow up months. By only making sure the new employee is listed on the company schedule and in the phone system can make the first impression very favorable.

Everyone in the whole company goes through this training regardless of what your rank is and what you do for the company, its mandatory. Then at the end of the four-week training process the whole class is given an offer for $2000 to quit. This whole process of two interviews and training helps Zappos maintain their culture.

The role of human resource management is one of strategic partner, administrative expert, and consultant (managing all of the organization 's people related processes strategically). It is the job of hr management in to recognize that decreased turnover, higher employee morale, and involved employees in the decision making process are all optimal in providing key leverage in an organization 's strategic plan. Management integrate strategic hr management with the organization 's strategy formulation. This means that management has searched the organization and its environment for opportunities and initiated projects and decisions to bring about changes that are both advantageous

“Wal-Mart grew its training and development program the way it grew the corporation: from store level up.” (Speizer, P. 2) Wal-Mart is such a large organization that their training and development needs to be top notch and have great influence on their staff. An author of Wal-Mart and a worker said, “Their training and development is making a significant commitment and it will be a radar screen for all other organizations.” The company is using a combination of outside vendors and systems it has created on its own in the overhaul of training and development. (Speizer, P. 2) Their new method of training was brought to them by Nike. The process goes something like this, “Each segment is three to seven minutes long and gives the associates the basic knowledge they need about various products. As new products are introduced each season, the training is updated and Nike customized the program for each retailer. Associates are then quizzed at the end of the training and asked for feedback, which gets sent back to managers and they are able to adjust things if needed.” (Marquez, P. 2) This process is an outstanding format; internet is the new way of communicating and training. This type of training is called e-training and is definitely shown to be efficient. Other companies such as Cingular and Nike have taken part in this

Q. Critically analyse the article for the meaning of strategic human resource management and identify the factors impacting on strategic human resource management in contemporary organisations.

Strategic human resource management is the process of linking the human resource function with the strategic objectives of the organization in order to improve performance.

To simply define Human Resource Management (HRM), it is a management function that helps managers recruit, select, train and develop members for an organization. Obviously, HRM is concerned with the people’s dimension in organizations.