Amazon Leadership Principles are a handful of inspiring tips not only for leaders, but also for people supporting their development, business owners and coaches.
To the point, here they are with a short explanation:
"Good intentions don't work, mechanisms do"
- Customer obsession.
Working from the end - i.e. planning and designing the process from the target state to the initial state.
Leaders start from the goal as if it has already been achieved and plan the entire process backwards, taking into account:
- How should the product be perceived by the customer?
- What needs should be satisfied?
- How will the company position itself against the competition (competitive strategy)?
- How will we respond to changes?
- What pricing policy will be used?
- Who and how will develop sales and take care of customers (what kind of people do we need on board)
- Feeling of responsibility
Leaders feel responsible for the long-term fate of the company. They build ambitious goals and know that only about 1/3 of them will be achieved. If they were all achieved, it would mean that they were not ambitious enough.
Motivational systems for management staff are based on shares in the company's shares, which means that managers, as owners, become co-responsible for their revenues. The remuneration is therefore related to the company's long-term revenues.
- Inventiveness and simplification
Leaders look for new ideas everywhere. The environment is changing. They don't accept the argument "it's not done this way here." When taking innovative actions, they take into account that their ideas will not be understood for some time.
The principle of one project - one leader applies.
"The easiest way to avoid inventing something is to assign it to someone as an additional task"
- Be right and often
Leaders have instincts and accurate judgments. They are also eager to learn about different perspectives
- Development and curiosity
A leader learns and improves all the time. He is ready for change.
- Hiring and developing the best.
A leader raises the bar with every recruitment and promotion. Leaders identify and support talent in the organization. They are not afraid of competition and better subordinate employees, because thanks to them they can develop themselves.
- Commitment to the highest standards
The leader is adamant about standards. They constantly raise the bar and motivate. They eliminate shortcomings and errors. The rule is to have well-prepared meetings with a specific and planned time, during which no Power Point presentations are used, but short, substantive reports of up to several pages.
"Writing a good 4-page note is more difficult than preparing a 20-slide Power Point presentation"
- Ambition in thinking
Unambitious visions are a self-fulfilling prophecy. People boldly set a direction, think alternatively and act unconventionally. The leader gets rid of what hinders creative thinking.
- Action orientation
In business, pace counts. Many decisions can be reversed, so they do not need to be preceded by extensive analyses. Calculated risk is key.
- Economy
A leader achieves more with less resources. Instead of expanding interdisciplinary communication, it supports autonomy in action. Better coordination is a bad solution. When an organization grows, it seems natural to focus on better communication, but dependencies should be eliminated, increasing freedom of action. The project is implemented only after obtaining approval for the involvement of resources, never the other way around.
- Building trust
The leader listens actively and respectfully. He does not assume that he is always right.
- Insight
The leader functions at all levels and conducts frequent audits. There are no tasks worthy of attention. Each action should be well justified. If a good justification is lacking, the project is not supported.
- Faithfulness to values
The leader is brave in expressing his opinion and encourages others to express different opinions.
- Results
The leader focuses on the most important indicators measuring the effect. The following are assessed:
- past results: goals achieved/not achieved
- major initiatives planned for the next year
- detailed profit and loss statement
- resource demand
Amazon: Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and sold his first book in July 1995[2]. It was a copy of Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies. Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought. At the beginning of its existence, Amazon was an online bookstore. Soon its product range expanded to include DVDs, computer equipment, electronic equipment, furniture, food products and many others. (…) In 2019, Amazon took 4th place in the ranking of the world's largest retail companies with revenue of USD 118.573 billion. In Poland, the American Chamber of Commerce, which in 2020 summarized 30 years of activity of American companies in Poland, announced that Amazon is the largest US employer in the country and the third largest American investor. Source Wikipedia.
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