I was recently introduced to the brilliantly written blog, Talent Vanguard. In the first post I read, Jane Watson goes on a rant about the over-referencing of Zappos at HR conferences. (Granted, it was an eloquent and politely worded rant, but I give it the official stamp of “Rant”, none the less)
As someone who regularly references Zappos in my own presentations, I was intrigued. The point Ms. Watson is making has actually nothing to do with Zappos per se, but rather about people who blindly accept case studies and examples as gospel, and then attempt to shoehorn someone else’s “hot new solution” into their own business. Like unthinkingly applying any prescribed method into any aspect of your life, this is a mistake. Not all children should be raised the same way, not all people should exercise the same way, and not everyone likes the same toppings on their sandwich.
We need to take examples of what worked well, break out the salient points, reflect on them and then strategically, and in support of the bigger vision, apply the pieces that are relevant to our unique situations.
No one’s saying Zappos doesn’t have some great things going for them. But you have your own process. Your own culture. Your own success stories. Pull what you can from Zappos and intelligently apply it to your business. Blindly copying the latest success story is, frankly, just downright lazy.
