Following my look at the Zappos customer philosophy and company culture, I conclude my series based on Tony Hsieh's book 'Delivering Happiness' with a look at the challenges of 'being different'.

It may have started by accident, but Tony Hsieh and the team at Zappos soon began to realise that what they were doing was radical in every regard. From the way they look after customers, to the way they treat their suppliers and team. Of course the final focus always has to be the bottom line - this isn't some airy-fairy altruistic organisation - but they simply realised that you don't have to slavishly follow what everyone else does in order to be profitable.

Of course it's easy to say ... "Oh they're an American online shoe retailer, how can that apply to me?" Or, "it's alright for them, they are a major corporation - it's simply not possible to do that when you are a local accountant, caterer, chiropractor or whatever ..."

The challenge to you is to find the parallels for your business. You don't have to copy what they did, and it won't all apply but the are lessons here for us all.

The key here is that they ...

1. ... have a clear underlying business philosophy
2. ... have a strong and clear company culture
3. ... are not afraid of being different

We are all familiar with the 80/20 rule ... and in business that means that 20% of your sector are successful at what you do, and 80% are mediocre at best. Even amongst the 20%, only the top 1% are outstandingly successful and only the top 5% would qualify as VERY successful.

So when you decide to follow the 'norms' for your sector, you are taking a very big risk. The majority of your sector are doing only 'well', 'ok' or are 'failing'. Is this really the standard you want to adopt?

As Mark Twain famously wrote in best part of 100 years ago,

Whenever you find you are on the side of majority, it is time to pause and reflect'.

How very true - but not easy at all .....

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