If you are in the business of sports, then you are really in the business of “happiness”. No matter what role you have within the organization, at the end of the day, win or lose, one question should be asked to judge whether you and your organization have been a success:
Have you delivered happiness to your fans?
On Monday June 7 Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, releases his book titled “Delivering Happiness“. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy to read before the official on-sale date and it should be required reading for everyone in the sports business world.
The first half of the book is about Tony’s experiences with entrepreneurship, his rise as a dot com founder, his struggle to find purpose after selling his company to Microsoft, and then how he eventually found his way to Zappos.com. For an entrepreneur like myself, the stories and insights into the success and failures he has had throughout the years was great. If you have or plan on starting a business of your own, or work in a start-up environment, you’ll love this part of the book.
But the real gems for those involved in the sports marketing and business worlds come in the last half of the book. You’ll learn how Zappos.com evolved over time into being known as one of the #1 companies in the world for customer service. Tony gives some great tips on how to instill customer service into all parts of your organization, and use a high level of customer service to build your brand.
There are so many good takeaways that sports organizations can use in how they communicate, interact, and serve their fans.
Like a good playoff game where the best plays happen in the closing minutes, the last chapter of the book teaches you how to build your own “happiness framework”. To paraphrase Tony, the parallels between what makes people happy and what makes for great long-term companies are obvious.
Pick up a copy of Delivering Happiness today and share it with your colleagues. You’ll learn how to get yourself, and the rest of your organization, on the path to happiness in life and in business.
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