The Amazon Way: A Review

Summary

The Amazon Way is a corporate culture manifesto and occasional love letter to Jeff Bezos. It explains the 14 cultural principles that have helped rocket Amazon to its current juggernaut status.

The 14 Leadership Principles (along with some notable excerpts):

1. Obsess over the customer.

   1. 

2. Take ownership of results.

   1. 

3. Invent and simplify.

   1. 
   2. 
   3. 

4. Be right — A lot.

   1. 
   2. 

5. Hire and develop the best.

6. Insist on the highest standards.

7. Think big.

8. Have a bias for action.

9. Practice frugality.

10. Be vocally self-critical.

11. Earn the trust of others.

12. Dive deep.

13. Have backbone — Disagree & commit.

14. Deliver results.

Want a one-pager that summarizes the 14 principles above?

Check out the Amazon-created one here.

My Thoughts

1. All 14 principles make complete sense and are mostly intuitive.

2. In practice, the organizational challenges I've observed most often come from a failure to consistently follow:

   1. Take ownership of results

   2. Practice frugality

   3. Hire and develop the best

3. If you are only able to make a few changes to your organizational culture this year, I've seen organizations most greatly benefit from consistently following:

   1. Obsess over the customer

   2. Take ownership of results (a.k.a. Be accountable)

   3. Have a bias for action

4. I am worried that the philosophy of The Amazon Way may be long-term detrimental for society. Why? Read the quotes below and then I'll explain.

There is a vast difference between customer obsession and customer beneficence. The guidance of The Amazon Way seems to advocate for (1) deliberately crushing socially beneficent organizations that aren't you and (2) disincentivizing innovation from smaller companies, who likely do not have the infrastructure to withstand a larger company's stealing and mimicry of their investments in innovation. You have effectively removed choices from customers and stifled a culture of innovation. But you can charge more money now for the same goods, and so your profit margins will be higher. Congrats?

If you genuinely care about your customers' longer-term well-being, then I would recommend deviating from The Amazon Way and creating guard rails to ensure your organization avoids strategies that may limit or make life harder for your customers.

Final Takeaways

1. The Amazon leadership principles one-pager is a must-read for organizational leaders and HR professionals of every level

2. If the principles do not feel intuitive and you've read my aforementioned concern, then The Amazon Way is a pretty quick read.