In a talk at the 2018 Air, Space and Cyber Conference, Jeff described Amazon this way: “Our culture is four things: customer obsession instead of competitor obsession; willingness to think long term, with a longer investment horizon than most of our peers; eagerness to invent, which of course goes hand in hand with failure; and then, finally, taking professional pride in operational excellence.” (xi) (查看原文)
Another of Jeff’s frequent exhortations to his small staff was that Amazon should always underpromise and overdeliver, to ensure that customer expectations were exceeded. (查看原文)
A switch to narratives places the team’s ideas and reasoning center stage, leveling the playing field by removing the natural variance in speaking skills and graphic design expertise that today plays too great a role in the success of presentations. The entire team can contribute to the crafting of a strong narrative, reviewing the revising it until it’s at its very best. It should go without saying - sound decisions draw from ideas, not individual performance skills. (查看原文)
Working Backwards is a systematic way to vet ideas and create new products. Its key tenet is to start by defining the customer experience, then iteratively work backwards from that point until the team achieves clarity of thought around what to build. Its principal tool is a second form of written narrative called the PR/FAQ, short for press release/frequently asked questions. (查看原文)
The institutional no refers to the tendency for well-meaning people within large organizations to say no to new ideas. The errors caused by the institutional no are typically errors of omission, that is, something a company doesn’t do versus something it does. Staying the current course offers managers comfort and certainty - even if the price of that short-term certainty is instability and value destruction later on. (查看原文)
Articulate the core elements of the company’s culture, as Amazon did with long-term thinking, customer obsession, eagerness to invent, and operational excellence. (查看原文)
Our culture is four things:customerobsession instead of competitor obsession;willingness to thinklong term,with a longer investment horizon than most of ourpeers;eagerness to invent,which of course goes hand in hand with failure;and then,finally,taking professional pride in operational excellence. (查看原文)
one simple rule:"It has to be perfect.He‘d remind his team that one bad customer experience would undo the goodwill of hundreds of perfect ones. (查看原文)
Another of Jeff's frequent exhortations to his small staff wasthat Amazon should always underpromise and overdeliver,to en-sure that customer expectations were exceeded. (查看原文)
What distinguishes Amazon is that its Leadership Principlesare deeply ingrained in every significant process and function at the company.In many cases,the principles dictate a way of thinkingor doing work that is different from the way that most compa-nies operate.As a result,newly hired Amazonians go through achallenging multimonth period of learning and adapting to thesenew methods.Because these processes and practices are embeddedin every meeting,document,decision,interview,and performancediscussion,following them becomes second nature over time.Andany employee who violates them draws attention to themselveslike a person loudly scratching their fingernails across a chalkboard.If,for example,a person spoke up at a meeting and suggested anidea that was obviously geared toward short-term c... (查看原文)
People often ask,"How do you remember all 14 principles?"Theanswer is not that we are particularly good at memorization.In fact,if a company's principles must be memorized,it's a warning signthat they aren't sufficiently woven into the fabric of that company.We know and remember Amazon's principles because they are thebasic framework used for making decisions and taking action.Weencountered them every day,measured ourselves against them, (查看原文)
One clear downside to this approach is that other companieswith deep pockets can try to hire away your best employees withbig cash offers.It's true,some employees leave for a short-termjump in their cash compensation.But on the positive side,Amaon's approach reinforces the kind of culture it seeks to developSometimes it is okay to lose people who have a short-term focuwhile retaining those who are in it for the long term. (查看原文)
A well-instrumented two-pizza team had another powerfulbenefit.They were better at course correcting-detecting and fix-ing mistakes as they arose.In the 2016 shareholder letter,eventhough he wasn't explicitly talking about two-pizza teams,Jeffsuggested that "most decisions should probably be made withsomewhere around 70%of the information you wish you had.Ifyou wait for 90%,in most cases,you're probably being slow.Plus,either way,you need to be good at quickly recognizing and correct-ing bad decisions.If you're good at course correcting,being wrongmay be less costly than you think,whereas being slow is going tobe expensive for sure." (查看原文)
