An interesting post from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh claiming culture is your brand. I agree with how you get to "the brand" but I believe more emphasis needs to be placed on the culture. Question: Can company culture be defined by an executive team, a mandate of sorts? No. In my mind it has to come from within the entire organization and in an organic sort of way, else it will seem forced or contrived. Zappos has proven "if you build it, they will come". People want to work for great companies and customers buy from great companies.
Tony's take:
So what's a company to do if you can't just buy your way into building the brand you want? What's the best way to build a brand for the long term?
In a word: culture.
At Zappos, our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff -- like great customer service, or building a great long-term brand, or passionate employees and customers -- will happen naturally on its own.
