Drugstore.com did $500 million in 2010 sales and is one of the few pure-play survivors of the original dot.com era. I was employee #15 and worked there from 1998-2001 - it was a great experience.
Many of the top people and early employees came from Microsoft. We co-opted a number of the MS practices, including interviewing.
Within 10 minutes after you finished interviewing a candidate, you had to send an email declaring a "Hire or No Hire" recommendation and a few words as to why. The process made the interviewers accountable and also made them take the process more seriously.
I would suggest one addition to increase the likelihood of hiring great employees. If you declare "hire", you must state specific evidence why this candidate is or might be more talented and/or more productive than the people in the work team they will join. The evidence should be tangible things the candidate has done - not their credentials (employers, jobs held, school attended, GPA).
If your employees know that they can only hire stars, they will look for and over time learn to identify stars and if the new talent is better than incumbents, the organization is more likely to win.
O.D.O.o.O.D.B.
