There’s a long story as to how I ended up visiting Zappos in Las Vegas but it ends with them sending a personal driver to pick me up from my hotel and handing me a free preview copy of their CEO @Tony Hsieh’s book on my arrival.

Never ones to do anything but wow they also sorted me out with a Zappos Culture Book, Purple Cow book (well worth a read too), cardboard crown and 30 minutes of face time with their charming, Business Development Manager, @Aaron Magness. All this for someone who couldn’t buy a shoe from them if he tried (sadly their service team seem to draw the line at hand delivering to the UK).

The book itself charts Tony’s incredible rise on the back of Link Exchange, the hard lessons he learnt from the business he grew to hate and how he nearly lost his millions again investing in Zappos - a novel (at the time) new way of selling shoes online. As well as being a well written thriller of a corporate novel, and genuinely hard to put down at times, the book has a wealth of valuable business lessons to take on board.

Wowing your customers it seems begins with wowing your staff and Zappos’ hugely succesful social media efforts are only made possible because it’s a genuinely fun place to work. From small things, like having a free library of interesting books, through to headline grabbing gestures, such as their $2000 bribe to get weak-willed new staff to quit, you can see Zappos are serious about having and developing the right staff.

If you’re ever in Las Vegas I thoroughly recommend the Insights tour, even over a trip to the Grand Canyon - it’s truly exciting to see how the organisation lives out it’s values first hand, from hanging monkey vines from the ceiling through to scribbled wall art.

It was a great honour to be able to talk ‘social media’ (whatever that really is) with Aaron, one of the conpany’s leaders and the sector’s pioneers, and to get a glimpse of their wider attitudes and future plans. The biggest revelation was perhaps that, unlike their tightly controlled advertising spend, they make no efforts to measure their ROI (return on investment) for social media -“what’s your return on not being involved in the conversation at all?” he casually asked.

Whilst Tony regularly reminds us in his book that you cannot just pick up what works at Zappos and drop it on any old organisation you cannot help wishing that you could and surely many will now at least try?

The book’s final chapter begins with a direct, personal challenge - what is your goal in life? Ultimately what do you think will make you happy? It then provides a summary of the wider science of happiness, unrivaled since my Cambridge Social Psychology lectures. An unexpected twist and perhaps even a tool kit for self & business improvement.

Available in hardback from June 7th ‘Delivering Happiness: A path to profits, passion and purpose’ is a must read for anyone who wants to get inside the head of one of America’s most exciting companies or breathe new energy and excitement into their own.

Zappos Insights offer free 1 hour tours of their Las Vegas offices - they run several times a day but you must book 48 hours in advance. The team also runs a range of more indepth tours and business workshops for those serious about developing their own business in their model.

Join the movement - http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/jointhemovement