Fortune 500 Corporation - Typical Management Style

October 28, 2014

Members:

Francisca Cavalcante

Andy Garcia

Ali Pazourek

Daniel Reeves

Philip Scherrer

Table of Contents

The Introduction

The following is more than just an analysis of your typical management style that is present at many Fortune 500 corporations. It is an analysis of a culture, an analysis of a family. Zappos has grown to more than an online retailer. Zappos is also an in innovator in the fields of leadership and corporate structure. This report contains the history of the company from its foundation to current state. You will gain insight into the employee selection process, the training methods, and team development. Upon reading this you will understand how Zappos create its leaders, most importantly, you will learn about the creator of this culture and family, Tony Hsieh. Although Tony did not create and name Zappos he is undoubtedly the explanation for the success and the reason company still exists. Also a SWOT analysis was conducted to highlight the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that Zappos possesses or faces.

The Organization

Zappos.com was the first of its kind, a completely online shoe store. Zappos mission statement is “...to provide the best customer service possible (Zappos.com, 2014).” Its gross sales hit a billion dollars in less than ten years (Zappos, 2014). All sales are online through zappos.com, a privately held online show store. Fortune has Zappos ranked in the top 100 positions in its industry. Zappos also won overall best places to work by Tribune Business News in 2009 (Robison, 2009). The corporate headquarters are located in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. They opened one distribution center located in Louisville, Kentucky because their shipping partner UPS, has a global airfreight hub near by (Tice, 2012). The company has 1,500 employees (Wirthman, 2014).

The Management Team

Nick Swinmurn was tired of not finding shoes at countless locations and even after turning to the internet was still frustrated by not finding what he was looking for. At this point, Nick Swinmurn quit his day job recognizing a huge opportunity in the market and started zappos.com. At age 24, Tony Hsieh, an Asian American, became an advisor and investment to keep the company afloat after selling his company LinkExchange to Microsoft for $265 million. Tony Hsieh was promoted from consultant to CEO the next year (Zappos.com, 2014). While