The unexpected death of Zappos founder: an entrepreneur against traditional business logic

以鞋子为主业的电子商务网站Zappos几乎在各个方面颠覆着人们对传统电子商务行业的认知：在这里，客服可以像朋友一样和客户通半个小时的电话，即使最终的结果可能是连一双鞋都卖不出去。捷步达康几乎从不做广告，但它的员工活跃在社交平台上，自愿帮助公司推广。如果你在捷步达康购买鞋子，你可以在明年内退货。是的，你说得对。返回的期限是一个特别长的一年。

Zappos, an e-commerce website with shoes as its main business, is subverting people's perception of the traditional e-commerce industry in almost every way: here, customer service can chat with customers on the phone for half an hour like a friend, even if the final result may be that even a pair of shoes can't be sold. Zappos almost never advertises, but its employees are active on social platforms, volunteering to help promote their company. If you buy shoes in Zappos, you can return them within the next year. Yes, you are right. The time limit for return is an extra long year.

这样一家在电子商务乃至整个互联网世界堪称"异质"的公司，不仅赢得了无数人的赞誉，而且取得了惊人的商业成功。

Such a company, which can be called "heterogeneous" in the e-commerce and even the whole Internet world, has not only won praise from numerous people, but also achieved amazing commercial success.

11月27日，当捷步达康21年的灵魂人物谢家华意外去世的消息传出后，西方互联网和风险投资界的大部分人都陷入了困境。

When the news that Xie Jiahua, the soul of Zappos for 21 years, died unexpectedly on November 27, most of the Western Internet and venture capital world were in distress.

谢家华除了是一名杰出的企业家，更多的是因为他在商界之外的"非常规之路"。他被迫每天做一些不舒服的事。正是谢家华不断突破自己的"刚性规则""传递幸福"不仅是他传记的题目，也是很多人对他的印象。

In addition to being an outstanding entrepreneur, Xie Jiahua is more remembered for his "unconventional road" outside the business world. He is forced to do something uncomfortable every day. It is Xie Jiahua's efforts to constantly break through his "rigid rules". "Delivering happiness" is not only the title of his biography, but also the impression of many people on him.

沃顿商学院（Wharton Business School）组织行为学教授亚当•格兰特（Adam grant）说，谢旭人已经证明，没有必要在善良和成功之间做出选择。

Adam grant, a professor of organizational behavior at Wharton Business School, says Mr. Xie has proved that there is no need to choose between kindness and success.

天生的企业家

Born entrepreneur

谢家华心中似乎是个企业家。作为"中国移民的第二代，谢氏的第二代移民"。高中毕业后，谢家华以优异的成绩进入哈佛大学攻读计算机学位。上大学时，他在宿舍给同学们卖比萨饼。哈佛大学毕业后，他加入甲骨文公司，不到五个月就辞职了。随后，他创立了自己的第一家在线广告公司linkexchange。

Xie Jiahua seems to be an entrepreneur in his heart. As the second generation of Chinese immigrants, Xie Jiahua was a "child of other people's family" from childhood. After graduating from high school, Xie Jiahua entered Harvard University for a computer degree with outstanding performance. In college, he sold pizza to his classmates in his dorm. After graduating from Harvard, he joined Oracle and quit his job in less than five months. Then he founded his first online advertising company, linkexchange.

1998年，也就是linkexchange成立两年后，它就被微软以2.65亿美元收购。那时，年仅25岁的谢家华成了亿万富翁。

In 1998, just two years after its establishment, linkexchange was acquired by Microsoft for $265 million. At that time, Xie Jiahua, who was only 25 years old, became a billionaire.

随后，他与大学好友林毅夫（Alfred Lin）共同创立了风险投资公司venture frogs，这是一家专注于初创企业孵化和投资的风险投资公司。不久，一位名叫尼克·斯温默恩的年轻人敲开了他们办公室的门，并解释了他的创业理念：在网上卖鞋。

He then co founded venture frogs, a venture capital that focuses on incubation and investment in start-ups, with his college friend Alfred Lin. Soon after, a young man named Nick swinmurn knocked on the door of their office and explained his entrepreneurial idea: selling shoes online.

一开始，谢旭人并不在意这样的想法，但当他听到斯文穆恩说，在美国，鞋子的总市值约为400亿美元，其中5%是邮购的。谢家华认为，也许网络形式可以提高远程购鞋的效率。

At first, Xie didn't care about such an idea, but when he heard swinmurn say that the total market value of shoes in the United States is about 40 billion dollars, of which 5% is through mail order. Xie Jiahua thinks, perhaps the form of online Internet can improve the efficiency of remote shoe shopping.

不到两个月后，谢家华作为捷步达康的首席执行官开始全身心投入到公司中来，最初的启动资金为160万美元。到2009年，公司总业务量已达10亿美元。

Less than two months later, Xie Jiahua began to devote himself to the company as chief executive officer of Zappos, with an initial start-up capital of $1.6 million. By 2009, the company's total business volume has reached 1 billion US dollars.

贝佐斯的两次访问

Two visits by Bezos

捷步达康业务的快速发展引起了另一家电子商务公司的关注，这就是未来电子商务行业的巨头亚马逊。

The rapid development of Zappos business has attracted the attention of another e-commerce company, which is Amazon, the future giant in the e-commerce industry.

2005年，亚马逊创始人贝佐斯对Zappos进行了特别访问，并表示有兴趣购买Zappos。不过，谢家华最终拒绝了贝佐斯。他的回答是："无论亚马逊提供什么价格，我们都不会出售它。"

In 2005, Amazon founder Bezos paid a special visit to Zappos and offered his interest in buying Zappos. However, Xie Jiahua finally rejected Bezos. His reply was: "no matter what price Amazon offers, we will not sell it."

当时，捷步达康的目标是销售额达到10亿美元，并在未来5年内上市。为了保持其品牌和文化的独立性，业务蒸蒸日上的捷步达康不愿向亚马逊承诺。

At that time, Zappos's goal was to reach $1 billion in sales and go public in the next five years. In order to maintain the independence of its brand and culture, Zappos, with its booming business, was not willing to commit to Amazon.

但仅仅四年之后，情况就发生了变化。虽然捷步达康的年销售额仍在稳步增长，但公司的年销售额仍在稳步增长。

But after just four years, things have changed. Although Zappos's sales are still growing steadily, and the annual sales target of $1 billion is achieved two years ahead of schedule, the company is facing difficulties in operating capital.

当时，捷步达康急需1亿美元的营运资金，以实现业务的平稳过渡。然而，由于当时美国刚刚经历了一场金融危机，市场上的资金供给者趋于谨慎，几乎找不到愿意提供数亿美元资金的渠道。

At that time, Zappos was in urgent need of a $100 million working capital to realize the smooth transition of its business. However, as the United States had just experienced a financial crisis at that time, the capital suppliers in the market tended to be cautious and could hardly find channels willing to provide hundreds of millions of dollars of funds.

尽管该公司的运营似乎没有实质性问题，但捷步达康的董事会已经动摇了亚马逊因财务问题抛出的"橄榄枝"。在董事会的压力下，谢家华不得不再次回到谈判桌上，与贝佐斯进行了一个小时的谈话。双方就并购模式、业务和品牌细节达成一致，最终以12亿美元的价格完成收购。

Although the company's operations did not appear to be substantive problems, Zappos's board of directors has shaken the "olive branch" that Amazon has thrown out because of the financial problems. Under the pressure of the board of directors, Xie Jiahua had to return to the negotiation table again and had an hour's talk with Mr. Bezos. The two sides reached an agreement on the M & a mode, business and brand details, and finally completed the acquisition at a price of 1.2 billion US dollars.

独特的操作模式

Unique operation mode

收购后，亚马逊信守承诺，保留捷步达康品牌，继续独立运营。谢家华继续担任捷步达康的CEO，并继续领导公司的业务增长。

After the acquisition, Amazon kept its promise, kept the Zappos brand and continued to operate independently. Xie Jiahua continued to be the CEO of Zappos and continued to lead the company's business growth.

即使在收购十多年后的今天，捷步达康也没有多少亚马逊。谢家华与亚马逊长期从事不同业务。

Even today, more than a decade after the acquisition, Zappos doesn't have a lot of Amazon. Xie Jiahua has been engaged in different business with Amazon for a long time.

他说，亚马逊依赖低价，而捷步达康从不与价格竞争。如果亚马逊接到太多客户的电话，他们会发现问题所在。也许产品描述让用户困惑。他们将解决这些问题，以减少用户的通话和保持低价。在捷步达康，我们相信与客户进行人性化和情感化的沟通是提供服务的最佳方式。

Amazon relies on low prices, and Zappos never competes on prices, he said. If Amazon receives too many phone calls from customers, they will find out what's wrong. Maybe the product description puzzles users. They will solve these problems to reduce users' calls and keep low prices. At Zappos, we believe that human and emotional communication with customers is the best way to provide services.

捷步达康强调与客户建立深层次的情感交流，这是公司最独特的地方。捷步达康今天的商业成功证实了这种文化的实际可行性。

Zappos emphasizes the establishment of deep emotional communication with customers, which is the company's most unique place. The commercial success of Zappos today confirms the practical feasibility of this culture.

第一次使用Zappos的客户很可能会对Zappos认为司空见惯的小事感到高兴。例如，退货是完全免费的，没有任何理由。如果尺寸不对，捷步达康甚至会奖励用户几十美元的优惠券，即使这是客户自己的责任。

Customers who use Zappos for the first time are likely to be flattered by small things that Zappos sees as commonplace. For example, the return of goods is completely free without any reason. If the size is wrong, Zappos will even reward users with tens of dollars' voucher even if it is the customer's own responsibility.

在分享捷步达康成功的公开演讲中，谢家华曾表示，捷步达康并不试图最大化每一笔交易，而是希望与客户建立终身关系。

In a public speech sharing Zappos's success, Xie Jiahua once said that Zappos does not try to maximize every transaction, but hopes to build a lifelong relationship with customers.

正是因为捷步达康真正的客户至上的做法带来了超高的客户忠诚度。平台上80%以上的客户是老客户，交易量是新客户的10倍以上。

It is precisely because Zappos's real customer first approach has brought about ultra-high customer loyalty. More than 80% of the customers on the platform are old customers, and their transaction volume is more than 10 times that of new customers.

在客服投入上，几乎完全取代了广告营销。捷步达康几乎从不做广告，而是依靠现有客户的良好口碑来获得商业成功。

In the customer service investment, almost completely replaced advertising marketing. Zappos almost never advertises, but relies on good word-of-mouth among existing customers to achieve commercial success.

众所周知，捷步达康对员工也很慷慨。试用期结束后，如果不愿意加入公司，捷步达康仍将为离职员工提供一次性全额工资和2000美元奖励。捷步达康也是员工愿意工作多年的顶级公司之一。

Zappos is also known to be generous to its employees. After the probation period, if they are not willing to join the company, Zappos will still provide a one-time full salary and $2000 reward to the employees who leave the company. Zappos is also among the top companies that employees would like to work for years.

今年8月，谢家华辞去捷步达康公司CEO一职21年，开始全身心投入公司总部所在地拉斯维加斯的振兴计划。然而，他在四个月内死于一场事故。

In August this year, Xie Jiahua resigned as CEO of Zappos company for 21 years and began to devote himself to the revitalization plan of Las Vegas, where the company's headquarters is located. However, he died in an accident within four months.

在一封悼念谢家华的公开信中，捷步达康现任首席执行官凯达尔·德斯潘德（Kedar Deshpande）说，谢家华的善良和慷慨感染了周围的每一个人，就像他所说的"传递幸福"。

In an open letter in memory of Xie Jiahua, Kedar Deshpande, the current CEO of Zappos, said Xie's kindness and generosity infected everyone around him, just as he called "delivering happiness.".

Link：https://new.qq.com/omn/20201129/20201129A01O3J00.html

update time：2020-11-29 18:40:51