Scenes like this played out across the country. And they did because BBBK's incentives to excel not only worked for individuals, but they also worked seamlessly with the rest of its employee management system. We're not suggesting that the company's approach is somehow universal, although its deliberate balance of "trust and verify" shows up in the management systems of many other successful service companies.

But it's not just management that gets it. The conviction that culture is key is embraced throughout the ranks at Zappos. It's so central to the company's belief system, in fact, that the company publishes the Zappos Culture Book, which is updated regularly and contains hundreds of unscripted comments and essays written by Zappos employees and vendors about the company's culture, why it matters, and how it affects what they do every day. It was conceived as a training tool for new hires and partners, but consumption of the book has gone way beyond that internal circle. Ringing in at 348 pages in the 2009 edition, it's a moving and persuasive testament to the power of employee engagement ("happiness" in Zappos-speak), and the role of culture in eliciting it. We recommend buying it and just paging through.

And not unlike Commerce Bank, Zappos has an unstructured peer recognition program. A certain number of "Zollars" are allocated to each department, which the teams can then award to members who have made specific contributions to core values. These are redeemable at the company "Zollar" store.

Scenes like this played out across the country. And they did because BBBK's incentives to excel not only worked for individuals, but they also worked seamlessly with the rest of its employee management system. We're not suggesting that the company's approach is somehow universal, although its deliberate balance of "trust and verify" shows up in the management systems of many other successful service companies.

But it's not just management that gets it. The conviction that culture is key is embraced throughout the ranks at Zappos. It's so central to the company's belief system, in fact, that the company publishes the Zappos Culture Book, which is updated regularly and contains hundreds of unscripted comments and essays written by Zappos employees and vendors about the company's culture, why it matters, and how it affects what they do every day. It was conceived as a training tool for new hires and partners, but consumption of the book has gone way beyond that internal circle. Ringing in at 348 pages in the 2009 edition, it's a moving and persuasive testament to the power of employee engagement ("happiness" in Zappos-speak), and the role of culture in eliciting it. We recommend buying it and just paging through.