PEAK, 2nd Edition

Foreword

I first met Chip Conley at an event where we were both speaking in 2007, just one year before we hit $1 billion in gross merchandise sales at Zappos.com. When he presented his concepts from Peak, I was instantly struck with how similar our philosophies about building a brand and business were. I later found out that we were both passionate students of the field of positive psychology—essentially, the science of happiness—and that we had both applied our learning to our respective businesses as well as our personal lives. I felt like we were kindred spirits.

At Zappos, our goal is to wow our customers, our employees, our vendors, and ultimately our investors. We strive to deliver the very best customer service and customer experience, and ultimately our brand is about delivering happiness to the world. Our hope is that 10 years from now, people won't even realize that we started selling shoes online, and perhaps 20 to 30 years from now, there may even be a Zappos Airlines that's focused on just delivering the very best customer experience.

Our number-one priority at Zappos is company culture. Our belief is that if we get the culture right, then most of the other stuff, like building a long-term enduring brand, delivering great service, and finding passionate employees and customers, will happen naturally on its own.

Building a brand today is very different from building a brand 50 years ago. It used to be that a few people got together in a room, decided what the brand ...