What [Zappos’
company culture]
has done is
create a greater
awareness that
your largest
assets are your
employees,” says
Chou. “A happy
employee is a
more productive
employee.”
After one year at Zappos—which, today,
is a leader in online sales of footwear and
apparel, and was acquired by Amazon.com
Inc. in 2009—Chou left for private practice.
But it wouldn’t be long until she returned.
In 2006, she joined Zappos as an in-house
attorney, and in 2008, she took on the role
of general counsel.
CHOU FELT A LEGAL CAREER TUG AT HER
while still a high school student.
“It was because of speech and debate
[team],” she remembers. “I had this image
that lawyers just argue all day. Obviously,
that’s not the case, but I knew then that I
was going to apply to law school.”
After graduating from University of
California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of
Law in 1999, and after Zappos was founded
and funded, Chou left the nascent seven-employee company to spend six years
working at the San Francisco-based law
firm Shartsis Friese—a job closer to what
she’d imagined for herself in the first place.
“Gibson [Dunn & Crutcher] in LA is
a humongous office with hundreds of
attorneys,” she says of the firm she had
nearly joined. “Shartsis is about 45.
Working so closely [at Zappos] with
Tony and Alfred, and the businesses
themselves, made me realize I wanted
a smaller environment. … You get to
have more of an impact. I loved working
with just a few partners at Shartsis and
knowing the clients. It was an amazing
experience. … You could say I started
knowing what I really enjoyed in the legal
practice.”
If a more intimate workplace was her
style, then Zappos was among the coziest
to be found. All new employees at the
Henderson, Nev., headquarters—even
the in-house general counsel—quickly
find themselves immersed in a kind
of fun-loving corporate anti-culture,
where whimsy is as revered as work
itself. The office space is festooned with
decorations and employee flair. When
cubicle-dwellers feel a restless impulse,
cowbell-accompanied office parades can
and do result. On the company’s website,
a numbered list of 10 “Zappos Family
Core Values” features “Create Fun and
A Little Weirdness” six slots above the
more safely worded corporate mandate
to “Be Passionate and Determined.” To
make sure new hires are truly onboard
with the colorful climate, Zappos routinely
offers every trainee $2,000 to simply quit
and walk away. More than 97 percent
stay, and that’s the kind of loyalty that
earned Zappos a No. 6 spot on Fortune
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