heartharmony.com.au

If every you have been through a company merger, acquisition or buy-out, there comes a time when you need to talk with your staff. Most letters sent to team members are quite stilted, formal and written in heaps of legalise.

Today when Amazon bought out Zappos,  the Zappo CEO (Tony Hsieh) sent the most extraordinary & brilliant letter to his team. It is a very long letter so you may want to follow this link to read it in full.

What made it brilliant?

1. It is written from the heart. Period.
2. It is very funny in places – who else would describe the acquisition as “I personally would prefer the headline “Zappos and Amazon sitting in a tree…”
3. It answers the burning questions for employees about their jobs, the management team & the culture in very clear, unambiguous, non-spin language.
4. It introduces the Amazon CEO in a very personable way – via a You Tube Clip.
5. It is very clear about who will be doing what and when.
6. It has sections for finance types and legal types to read (these are right at the bottom of the letter and are clearly marked so “regular” people don’t have to read them).
7. It doesn’t look like a professional copywriter, HR team or lawyer had their fingers all over it – but something that well crafted would have had a whole team of professionals adding in their thoughts.
   

I have been through more mergers than I care to mention over the years, and I have to say that this is definitely a letter to go into your swipe file as the best example of an acquisition letter you will see.  Take the time to read it – I’d love to hear what you think.

Exuberantly yours

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance copywriter