18 Jun Zoom Success [Part 2] How company culture and business growth go hand in hand

Before the spread of the coronavirus, Zoom was already a successful IPO, even though it was mostly known in the tech industry and the educational environment. However, as soon as the work-from-home trend became the norm, Zoom took the market by storm and became almost synonymous with its function. Just to give you an example, since March 2, 2020, first-time installations of Zoom’s mobile app have skyrocketed 728%. 

We’ve already looked at the product value that made both businesses, communities, families, and friends choose Zoom as the go-to platform to stay in touch and collaborate. Now let’s consider to what extent their culture might have contributed to their accelerated growth. Because working culture and business growth go hand in hand. 

The continuing effect of the “frictionless video” vision

In 2013, when Eric Yuan founded Zoom, he already knew that he wanted to build an easy-to-use video communication platform that simply works on any device, with no friction. After working with Cisco and Webex for many years, Yuan was quite familiar with customer pains, so he decided to act on them on its own, with a video-first product. 

The frictionless video vision has become not only the lens through which Zoom has been building their product, but also the foundation of their culture. Because everything at Zoom is about creating and nurturing hassle-free communication – with customers, communities, and their own team. They strive to create an environment where people work smarter, not faster. They ask customers for their opinion and put their feedback into action to make the platform better.  

In short, they started with a vision of frictionless video and built a culture of caring with such a strong impact on employee behavior that it beats any product strategy. 

Delivering happiness as an organizing principle

Zoom is not just about meeting customer needs, it’s about truly delivering happiness. Sounds like a big promise, but it turns out they actually deliver it – not only to their customers, but also to nearly 2,000 employees spread across the world. 

Here’s CEO Eric Yuan sharing his idea of delivering happiness.

Under the delivering happiness motto:

• The company encourages employees to think about what makes them happy and to hold that top of mind so that they can bring their best selves to work.
  
• New team members have dedicated mentors who teach them all about culture and vision.
  
• They have all-hands quarterly meetings in each office and this way they build stronger connections.
  
• They have a volunteering group called the Happy Crew, that drive events, run programs, and find creative ways to recognize their co-workers.
  
• They strive to have a positive influence in the communities where they operate by volunteering, supporting charity, offering discounts to educational institutions and nonprofits.
  

Off the charts employee satisfaction

If Zoom seems to be too good to be true, then you need to take a look at their Glassdoor reviews. With a 4.7/5.0 rating from employees, a 96% friend recommendation rate, and a CEO approval rate of 98%, they do as well as Airbnb in its prime time, if not better. 

In 2018, CEO Eric Yuan was named Glassdoor’s #1 CEO, with an unprecedented 99% employee approval rating. In 2019, Zoom ranked #2 in Forbes’ and Glassdoor’s Best Place to Work In. 

Judging by the comments sections, Zoom employees feel proud to be able to contribute to building great customer experiences, they appreciate that the company cares about employees just as much as it cares about customers, they are very fond of their CEO and they trust his vision, they feel empowered to take action and many more.

In an interview from last year, Yuan underlined the interdependency between company culture and product development. “The product is kind of more like the outcome of your company culture. If you do not have a great culture, occasionally you might develop a good product. However, that’s not sustainable. Very soon, you’re not enlisting new customers. You try to add some features you think are right. The customers may not like it.“ 

To gain free access to the end-to-end case study on Zoom’s growth and success, you can sign up to BottomUp Skills. To learn more about how Zoom has been handling promotion, check in next for a new episode in our series.

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