[Zappos.com] is one of those companies people love to write about. They make headlines for their use of new media and their CEO (Tony Hsieh) is as .com legendary as one gets.. (he sold LinkExchange in 1998 for $265 million and under him zappos went from $1.6 million in sales (2000) to $840 million in sales (2007)).

He recently gave a talk at the [Web 2.0 conference].

He talks about how they invest in the customer experience, free shipping bouquets, and suprise shipping upgrades to get customers products delivered before they expect it.. This is all cool, and im sure people love them for it, but then he goes on to mention their number 1 priority as a company..

“Its actually not customer service. Our #1 priority as a company is company culture!”

He goes on to say “Its our belief that if we get the culture right, the rest of the stuff like great customer service will happen naturally”. The remaining 10 minutes of his talk are on why company culture matters..

I have so much i want to say about this, and why i think building and maintaining the right culture makes or breaks an organization, but i dont think i can beat his simple eloquence. “Our #1 priority as a company is company culture, Its our belief that if we get the culture right, the rest of the stuff .. will happen naturally”

/mh