

Tony Hsieh's Email to Employees RE: Zappos' Sale to Amazon - dwynings
http://blogs.zappos.com/ceoletter

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edawerd
I loved the video from Jeff Bezos explaining Amazon's beginning:

 _"It was a great moment when we would examine every order coming into Amazon.
And it was always a family member placing the order. And the first order we
got from a stranger, I remember, there was probabaly 10 of us in the company.
We were all gathered around after the bell rang, looking at the order. And we
were like 'Is that your mom?', 'Thats not my mom!'. And thus, it began."_

Can totally relate to this feeling.

~~~
mhartl
I remember people being disappointed about Bezos's talk last year at Startup
School; it felt less like a personal startup story and more like an
advertisement for Amazon Web Services. If he'd given a talk more like the one
in the video, I doubt anyone would have been complaining.

~~~
staunch
He taught everyone something really important: If you're in a big room full of
perfect potential customers make sure you tell them to buy your product!

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olefoo
That is an excellent example of how to communicate like a person when you're
speaking for a company. For the sake of Zappos' employees let's hope they
manage to uphold not just the explicit promises made in this letter, but the
implicit one of connection and caring that are carried by the tone.

The real measure of a letter like this is how it reads six months from now.

~~~
wheels
Really? This sounds like a person? Honestly, it reads like The Letter Every
CEO Of An Acquired Company Must Write.

[x] "Nothing will change!" [until we get around to changing it]

[x] "Your jobs are safe" [see point one]

[x] "It's about synergy, not money" (extra credit for using the phrase "high
touch")

~~~
ErrantX
[x] requisite light hearted "we are a different kind of company" tone

(agreed)

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joez
"3) We want to align ourselves with a shareholder and partner that thinks
really long term (like we do at Zappos), as well as do what’s in the best
interest of our existing shareholders and investors."

I read that as there was pressure from a shareholder for the short term. Some
board member was pushing for an exit.

~~~
mediaman
My understanding is that this was the case. I've seen some articles indicating
that Zappos has struggled to meet the short-term financial goals of some of
the investors, while staying aligned to its long-term objectives. So somebody
was wanting to distribute their capital gains to their LPs.

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hwijaya
Reading this email or the one by Autodesk's founder
(<http://www.fourmilab.ch/autofile/www/chapter2_22.html>) sometimes leave me
with questions on why most people can't take this more "like-a-person"
approach in communication.

Most letters from top management that i know of are usually boring and i
rarely understand the whole information (usually i ditched it far before i can
get through the whole formal languages)

~~~
imajes
they're normally written by lawyers and advisors. To partially answer your
question - you should check out the SEC guidance on this kind of thing - it's
not easy telling people you're about to engage in a massive deal that impacts
lots and lots of people with lots and lots of money.

~~~
hwijaya
Sure. I can understand that. I am no expert in legal system, but, is it
illegal to send out something that is legally correct AND/OR maybe accompany
by another letter that practically is more human-readable?

After all, what's the point of the letter if no one is reading it?

~~~
JimmyL
It's not so much a matter of "illegal" as "unwise" (and hence prevented by
lawyers).

Securities law is large, well-established, and quite complex. Especially in
the early stages of a merger, there are very clear legal restrictions on what
you can and can't say, and very high requirements for precision in reporting.

Legal statements of this type (as you can see in the last paragraph) are meant
to be very specific, and to say one thing only (and make it almost impossible
to interpret it any other way). Casual conversation is designed to be pretty
much correct, and leave some details unsaid/to common understanding. The clash
comes in that it's hard to say something that's as precise as you need without
sounding like a robot.

When you're thinking about things like this, don't think about Tony Hsieh, who
seems (by all reports) to be a pretty open and upstanding guy. Think about the
most fraudulent and deceptive private CEO you could imagine trying to merge
his company with the most fraudulent and deceptive public company you can
imagine. They're the people that these laws are designed to regulate - so that
they can't say something in "casual English" which one would normally read one
way, but could be read (and they would read) in a nefarious way. to disrupt he
market.

Law is, in some ways, like an obscure form of math or engineering. We could
say "the Fourier transform of a function is equal to the integral of the
function times e^-i", which is broadly correct, but not sufficiently precise
to understand what is going on and react accordingly. Instead, we specify it
exactly and boringly in a domain-specific language, not unlike certain aspects
of law.

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ghshephard
You have to respect a company that doesn't try and squash communication, but
instead releases a letter to its employees to the public blog like this.

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wglb
Very excellent communication to employees, and precise, as well: "Your job is
just as secure as it was a month ago."

~~~
dhimes
Not said: "Of course, we have been in negotiations for _many_ months, and your
job was the first one we decided to eliminate."

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skorgu
_Q: Will we get a discount at Amazon?

No, because we are planning on continuing to run Zappos as a separate company
with our own culture and core values. And we're not going to be giving the
Zappos discount to Amazon employees either, unless they bake us cookies and
deliver them in person._

By all accounts a fascinating culture. I wish them well!

------
briancooley
I think the handwritten points on the flipchart are an excellent touch by
Bezos and likely resonated with the Zappos employees. Even better if it was
organic rather than by design.

For those that missed the video, Bezos's points: \- Obsess over customers \-
Invent \- Think long term \- It's always Day 1

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supahfly_remix
The reality often is that acquisitions are good for the founders who cash out
after their holding period expires, but aren't good for the employees who are
left holding the bag.

~~~
sokoloff
How are employees left holding the bag here exactly?

Employees with shares, options or RSUs of Zappos private stock now have the
same on a publicly traded stock. There may be a holding period for them as
well, but every time that I've been an employee at a company that's gone
public or been bought by a public company (1 of the first and 2 of the
second), the only bags I've been left holding were full of $$.

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eterno
Almost a downer, I didnt think that tony was the kind of CEO who would sell
out.

Somebody tell me it was the VC's.

~~~
theoneill
_Somebody tell me it was the VCs_

Happy to oblige:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=719049>

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seshagiric
I like the very last question.

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I_got_fifty
At the risk of sounding ignorant, what is zappos? I've never heard of them.

~~~
jasonkester
I'm curious as to why the parent is being downvoted. He asked an honest
question that raises a valid point: Who are these guys, and if [he's] never
heard of them, why is this news?

As far as I can tell, they're an online shoe store that focuses on customer
service. I've never personally used them or been to their site, but I hear the
occasional good story about them.

~~~
ekanes
I think the parent was downvoted for asking people to explain it to him,
versus typing "Zappos" into Google, and then clicking "Search".

