Final Project One. The Specialized Online Retail Store,

His approach is person and situation specific. The modern management styles employed by Hsieh at Zappos, while unique, are effective in the proper environment. Zappos employees are noted to be incredibly enthusiastic about the Zappos brand, the company’s core values, and its workplace. Both Zappos unique culture and its management practice of encouraging work-life integration do seem to place emphasis on the need for particular personality traits in company employees. Individuals who are comfortable with a non-traditional workplace environment might thrive in Zappos unique environment. Individuals who prefer to maintain boundaries between their work and home lives and also prefer more traditional environment, as it relates to professionalism, may encounter conflict at Zappos.

Digital Business Assignment I currently work as a retail sales associate at Maurices, a retail clothing chain that sells women’s clothing, shoes, and accessories. There are over 900 stores, the majority of which are often found in small towns across the United States. Maurices serves a wide range of customers between the ages of 18-40, sizes 0-24, and has a variety of clothing options ranging from casual to dressy and everywhere in between. The company prides itself on being “simply the best hometown specialty retailer,” with a focus on “customer obsession.” From their product offerings to their return policy, down to the very people they employ in their stores, Maurices certainly takes into consideration every minor detail and strives to deliver an excellent customer experience for shoppers. However, in the business of retail clothing, there is always room for improvement in order to set yourself apart from competitors, attract and retain customers, and drive up revenues.

Unique Leadership Practices and Strategic Success Panera’s leadership team provided many behaviors that supported the strategic success of their organization. They were dedicated to serving others and focused on strategic practices such as self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills (Dess et al., 2012). The leadership practices are not so much unique but were applied in all aspects of their business. Other leaders of successful organizations have exhibited many of the same behaviors that the leadership team at Panera Bread Company used.

XYZ, Inc. Expansion MGT 435 XYZ, Inc. Expansion “Globalization and technology have made the world smaller and far more interconnected, so what affects one business sector or one part of the world invariably affects everyone.” (Weiss, 2012 sect. 1.1 Para. 1) In today’s modern world organizational change is inevitable for growth and stability, while leadership comes into an organization with a new plan as to how the organization will or should function. The avoidance of gross changes throughout an organization depends on the leadership’s ability to plan for the purposed change that is necessary to implement growth and expansion. The XYZ, Inc. is a high end retail chain that specializes in luxury items such as watches,

Zappos believes the company success originates from its business ethics. Much of company’s principal are focused on consumer’s satisfaction. This ethic facilitated in constructing the company’s foundation and core values.

Levitt (2014) defines culture as the coherent, learned, shared views of a group of people and about life’s concerns that ranks what is important, furnishes attitudes about what things are appropriate, and dictates behavior. Macy’s corporate culture possesses a diverse leadership team to target their diverse customers and locations. Diversity, based on experiences and passion, gives the Macy’s leadership team new perspectives to promote successful business. Levitt (2014) suggests organizational diversity can be considered as a mixture of people with different group identities working in the same social system. A multi-cultural team of Americans, Italians, Germans and Swiss would adapt well in the rich bouquet of culture in Zurich, Switzerland. As a new team leader, the biggest concern would be establishing integrations between the different cultures working together at Macys.

Additionally, business leaders take responsibility for their actions. They don’t make excuses for something that happened instead acknowledge and understand what went wrong to prevent it from happening again. Similarly, in order for the business to reach its goal the owner needs to share the vision with employees. Employees don’t recognize why the plan is important yet which is why leaders to take an enthusiastic approach to motivate them. In fact, aligning the vision, value, and goals of the plan will help employees strategize on how to achieve

Before this chapter I thought organization’s culture was only internal and outside factors only affect the brand and sales of the company. But I have now learned a lot more about the

Leadership Southwest airlines, a company that is known to have strong employee relationships, believes that the happier an employee the better productivity they will have. Southwest Airline CEO, Gary C. Kelly, has stated that in order to have a strong company he needs to take time building strong relationships as well. “Happy Employees = Happy Customers. Happy Customers keep Southwest flying” (Southwest). He created an environment that challenges employees to be innovative which lead to creative solutions. Gary C. Kelly is able to initiate structure within the company, since he had a clear goal and direction for the company employees were not confused. If Southwest Airlines was to change their leadership style to reflect a

Nick Swinmurn, who was inspired during an unsuccessful search for shoes, founded Zappos in 1999 (Zappos.com, 2015). He realized the opportunity, as there were no major online shoe retailers, so he quit his day job and started Zappos.com. Nick’s mission was to be a full-service online shoe retailer offering the best variety of shoes. Over the years, Zappos has set a new mission, which is to provide unsurpassed customer service in any category (Zappos.com, 2015).

Zappos – They Did It with Humor The CEO of Zappos Tony Hsieh depends on two focus areas to manage a successful business, customer service and culture. Zappos commitment to the highest level of customer service is legendary in the industry. Hsieh believes that his organization could be prosperous, regardless of the product they are selling, based solely on the customer experience. The culture is the main foundation of Zappos, and that culture is built on fun and family, which is evident in the organizations ten core values (Zappos. 2016). This assignment will answer the case analysis questions regarding Tony Hsieh’s unique leadership style and how Zappos can have continued success under new leaders (Schermerhorn & Bachrach. 2015. p. 457).

The owners of Zappos did an amazing job coming up with the idea of selling shoes to from online. There was a market that was created by Zappos. Zappos has been able to continue to grow due the advancing in technology that has made it must easier for customer to shop online. A lot of people know what kind of shoes they like and what size shoes they wear. If a customer does need a product in the next few days and can be patient then Zappos is a great store for that customer. Zappos makes it very easy for the customer because of it policies and customer service. Zappos offers free shipping. Zappos also give

Unfortunately, many online retailers have begun to catch up with many of these core competencies. The concepts of next-day delivery and “above and beyond” customer service are no longer the “WOW” factors that they may have been five years ago. However, the relationships that make up “Powered by Zappos” are tough to beat and give the company a competitive advantage through its supply web. At the time of this case, Zappos still holds the niche of being an online shoe expert, but companies

Strategic Analysis of Zappos.com Zappos.com, established in 1999, has rapidly become a strong competitor in online apparel and footwear sales. With the original corporate vison of offering the absolute best selection in shoes; the vision has evolved over the past several years to include the goal of being the retailer that “provides the absolute best service online -- not just in shoes, but in any category” (Zappos, 2014). The online retailer stocks millions of reasonably priced footwear products; carrying thousands of hard to find brand named shoes, handbags, apparel and accessories via the company website and 7,000 affiliate partners. In recognizing their rapid success, Zappos credits it to their commitment to the customer, stating,

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.