Like The Home Depot, culture is a big deal – and a huge element of success – for Blinds.com. A true testament to how company culture can motivate employees to succeed, the world’s largest online window covering store has thrived on fostering an environment that recognizes its employees for their work, empowers individual expression and encourages them to evolve.
Blinds.com has received many accolades for its creative culture, including recognition as a “Best Place to Work” multiple times. Even their onboarding process is fun—new employees receive a city tour from CEO Jay Steinfeld and tackle a scavenger hunt on their first day.
We talked with Jay about the company’s environment and how it fosters success.
What makes Blinds.com culture so unique?
The main purpose of the company is to help our employees become better than they believed possible. When people see they are part of something that continues to evolve, they are inspired to engage in everyday experiments to learn, measure, improve and eventually build something successful that never stops progressing.
Blinds.com has a very fun and bold office design. What inspired this type of environment?
My philosophy is if you want to grow innovation, you need that atmosphere. When you have a colorful environment with few walls, people are able to run into each other and have access to talk to whomever they want.
Your employees like to make videos that showcase the spirit in the office. Do you have a favorite?
My favorite video is the “I’m Gonna Be 500 Miles” lip-dub video, which they did as a surprise when I was away from the office. The whole staff dressed up for it, and what they did is pretty amazing. The fact that these things happen naturally—when the team takes initiative to work together—that’s pretty gratifying for a founder. (Editor's note: Video no longer available.)
What does Blinds.com do as a brand to differentiate themselves from others?
Our culture drives us to never-ending improvement. We never accept anything as the best it can be. We also invest heavily in our own training and leadership development. We teach the skills to determine a customer’s needs, and how to provide the right solution every time.
Interconnected retail is something that’s very important to Home Depot. Does it relate to Blinds.com’s philosophy?
If you take our mission—to transform hard-to-buy products into experiences that are easy and exciting for the customer—then it perfectly aligns. Blinds are hard to buy but, through our partnership with Home Depot, we’re making it easier, whether someone’s using a tablet or going in the store. What could be more exciting than having our mission apply to more than 2,000 Home Depot stores. That’s very gratifying and thrilling. I believe that together we will be more successful than either of us originally believed we would be.
The Home Depot acquired Blinds.com in January 2014.
