You'll also hear us say that at Amazon, it's always "Day 1." What do we mean? That our approach remains the same as it was on Amazon's very first day - to make smart, fast decisions, stay nimble, invent, and focus on delighting our customers. Staying in Day 1 requires you to experiment patiently, accept failures, plant seeds, protect saplings, and double down when you see customer delight, he wrote. Our actions, goals, projects, programs, and inventions begin and end with the customer's top of mind. In our 2016 shareholder letter, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos shared his thoughts on how to keep up a Day 1 company mindset. Our mission is to be Earth's most customer-centric company. Together, Amazonians research and develop new technologies from Amazon Web Services to Alexa on behalf of our customers: shoppers, sellers, content creators, and developers around the world. We have the scope and capabilities of a large company and the spirit and heart of a small one. We embrace new ways of doing things, make decisions quickly, and are not afraid to fail. ![]() We are driven by the excitement of building technologies, inventing products, and providing services that change lives. Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. This post was written by VP, Principal Analyst Brendan Witcher, and it originally appeared here. To understand the business and technology trends critical to 2021, download Forrester's complimentary 2021 Predictions Guide here. None of this is secret sauce, and, with the right plan, could be applied to any business. This is what I’ve seen Amazon do consistently, where others fall short or simply fail altogether. However, Amazon should do a better job of putting seasoned business professionals in place - down in the ranks - to partner with tech and ops people to run divisions like Amazon Go, Alexa, and AWS, instead of just the folks that helped build and launch the capabilities. Why? Amazon often puts tech and ops people in charge of business responsibilities. Bezos has the rare ability to be and balance all three as a leader, and I have no doubt about Andy Jassy’s ability to steer the ship. Then we leverage the Amazon Alumni talent pool to create unfair advantages for the founders we invest in. We invest in former Amazonians who traded in their blue badges to become founders. One after another, Amazon convinced bigger companies to outsource their e-retail operations to. Day One provides current and former Amazonians with access to qualified startup investments. However, Amazon does have a weakness in what I call the three-legged stool strategy: the business component. These days the buzz phrase is artificial intelligence. This ability alone separates the company from the pack. It also has an impressive - but not perfect - track record of balancing that mindset with the question, “OK, what does the customer really want?” Most importantly, Amazon does this without thinking it needs to stay a traditional retailer to produce the answer. Amazon doesn’t define internal competition the way other companies do. At Amazon, they celebrate wins but don’t limit the number of people who can win. A win is a win, and they believe you don’t just give awards to first place - you treat second place, and third, fourth, etc., as their own wins, each separately worth recognizing and rewarding (although first place may get a bigger reward).īalance Your Business, Your Customers, And Your Tech MindsetĪmazon is the company it is today because it has a tech-first mindset and hires some of the best in the business to support it.Employees at all levels and in all departments are proud to say, “I work at Amazon!” If you are a leader at a company that’s tough to work at, you’d better find the counterweight to make people want to work there.In other words, he got out of the way and gave his teams what they needed to learn, try, and succeed or fail on their own. ![]() He hired great people to develop great ideas, and he supported them fully, even if he had doubts about their concepts. His philosophy was to never be the reason something failed. Jeff Bezos’ motto of “disagree and commit” is critical for Amazon to stay the innovative company it has been. So many companies take the approach that “good is good enough.” But as Jim Collins said in the opening line of his book Good to Great, “Good is the enemy of great.” Once you decide good is good enough, you are conceding to competitors that are willing to work for the extra yard over and over again.Ĭonstructively Doubt But Unconditionally Support Those With Responsibilities ![]() Did Amazon need to do that? No, but this is how it wins customers - reach by reach. And yet, just a few years later, Amazon announced you could login to the store by scanning your palm - no more need for a phone. Take Amazon Go, where customers use a smartphone and QR code to enter through a turnstile and “log in” to the store.
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