The Zappos Way of Managing, an article in the May issue of Inc. Magazine, describes how Zappos.com leader Tony Hsieh "uses relentless innovation, stellar customer service, and a staff of believers to make Zappos.com an e-commerce juggernaut - and one of the most blissed-out businesses in America."

The article attributes the online shoe store's success to Hsieh's obsession with customer and coworker happiness. Not satisfaction, or adherence to industry standards, or comfort or efficiency or economy, but personal, individual happiness. This man is a genius.

He so well understands the sources of an individual's happiness, that he has built a committed, loyal, hardworking team without having to buy their love. He pays the same or less than competitors, and provides few of the perks coworkers could find elsewhere, but he offers coworkers and customers something of enormous value: the liberty to be themselves.

According to the article, Hsieh believes that happiness depends on four factors: "perceived progress, perceived control, relatedness, and a connection to a larger vision." His job is to manage these factors to increase the happiness of his customers and coworkers.

Many companies try to focus on customer service without properly engaging their coworkers, but Hsieh seems to understand something I've said for decades: "Happy fingers ring happy cash registers." A partnership ethos - a feeling of ownership - motivates coworkers more than money ever could.

We've seen similar models in the past, but growth eventually strains a company's comfort with decentralized power. I believe we did a good job at Kinko's, but we certainly did not invent frontline empowerment. We studied Nordstrom and other customer service paragons of the time.

Even at our best, we faced challenges in the field. I remember seeing two Regional Managers handle the topic of customer dissatisfaction and recovery. One told his team to do whatever the unhappy customer requested. "Whatever?" a manager asked. "Whatever," the Regional answered.

At the other meeting, when a manager asked, "Whatever?" the Regional answered, "Within reason." She introduced doubt into their minds, and tied their hands, psychologically. Frontline empowerment cannot abide that kind of doubt: within whose reason? The first Regional Manager was unequivocal, and went on to become one of our most profitable partners. The second chose to mitigate, and stripped her coworkers of perceived control. Doubt is not an emotion conducive to happiness.

As his company and his fame grow, new pressures will be coming Mr. Hsieh's way, and he may feel tempted to mitigate his position on coworker and customer happiness. This is what most companies do, and why most lose their luster.  It certainly happened to us. When the savants from Clayton, Dubilier and Rice took control of Kinko's, they gutted coworker training programs, replaced frontline empowerment with management-by-audit, and replaced incentive based motivation with fear-based de-motivation.

The bookkeepers, consultants and "professional managers" will be coming after you, Mr. Hsieh, singing their Siren's song of unlimited growth and untold wealth, if you will only implement their strict policies and budget controls. They seduce companies into pursuing bigness rather than greatness.

But which will make customers and coworkers happier: a big company or a great company? You're on the right track, Mr. Hsieh; don't let the MBAs derail you.