Jenn Lim

Jenn Lim was inside the company that made workplace culture a business strategy before it was a conference theme, and her value to an organization is that she watched the idea work and watched what it cost.

She has consulted to Zappos since its founding in 2003, through its growth into a two-billion-dollar business, and she created the Zappos Culture Book, the annual volume in which employees describe the company in their own words, which became a widely copied symbol of culture treated as a product. With Tony Hsieh, the Zappos chief executive, she cofounded Delivering Happiness and in 2010 led the launch of the book of that name, which reached number one on the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal lists and has sold close to a million copies.

Beyond Happiness, her own book, is the account of what came after: the recognition that happiness as a workplace goal is not enough on its own, and a framework for leading with purpose at every level of an organization rather than treating it as a value statement. It was written with the experience of seeing a celebrated culture strain under the demands placed on it, which makes it more useful than most culture material and less comfortable.

She is chief executive and chief happiness officer of Delivering Happiness, which works with organizations on building cultures rooted in purpose, wellbeing and sustainable performance, and she has been named among the top fifty global keynote speakers.

She is booked for leadership summits, employee engagement and HR conferences, and company-wide events where a culture initiative is being launched or has stalled, and the sessions run as keynotes and, often, as keynote plus workshop, since the framework is meant to be applied to the organization in the room rather than admired.