What Jeff Bezos Knew Back in 1997 That Made Amazon a Gorilla
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Re: What Jeff Bezos Knew Back in 1997 That Made Amazon a Gorilla
#2My favorite: "It’s ok to make mistakes but it’s not ok to be timid." I know in silicon valley that sort of thinking is encouraged, but in most of corporate America it's very rare.
Re: What Jeff Bezos Knew Back in 1997 That Made Amazon a Gorilla
#3I'd add to this: the most sure fire way to dominate a market is by executing with a combination of skills that do not naturally tend to go together.
Google succeeded by combining high quality software engineering with cutting edge computer science research and beyond state-of-the-art data center operations.
Apple succeeded by combining solid software engineering with equally solid internet services engineering and more than anything exceptional design and aesthetics.
Amazon succeeded by combining solid web development with state of the art inventory management and fulfillment processes.
It's easy to do one thing well, there are literally millions of talented people in the world who can do one thing exceptionally well. But to be a company like Google, Amazon, or Apple you need to have a combination of talents that are typically unusual or difficult to keep together.
There are so many tech companies out there who have a band full of guitarists who all have the same musical tastes and background and they wonder why they haven't conquered the world yet.
Re: What Jeff Bezos Knew Back in 1997 That Made Amazon a Gorilla
#4It's an impressive testament to Bezos's vision and integrity that he was able to both articulate these principles early on and stick to them for 15 years.
Re: What Jeff Bezos Knew Back in 1997 That Made Amazon a Gorilla
#5I'd add to this: the most sure fire way to dominate a market is by executing with a combination of skills that do not naturally tend to go together. Google succeeded by combining high quality software engineering with cutting edge computer science research and beyond state-of-the-art data center operations. Apple succeeded by combining solid software engineering with equally solid internet services engineering and mo…
This is another great point. Thank you for sharing this.
Re: What Jeff Bezos Knew Back in 1997 That Made Amazon a Gorilla
#6My favorite: "It’s ok to make mistakes but it’s not ok to be timid." I know in silicon valley that sort of thinking is encouraged, but in most of corporate America it's very rare.
In Cubicleville thinking outside of the box is frowned upon, operating outside of the box is punished swiftly and even realizing that the box has an outside is dangerous.
Re: What Jeff Bezos Knew Back in 1997 That Made Amazon a Gorilla
#7Most of these points strike me as contrary to traditional lean startup advice--e.g. it's ok to expend a huge amount of resources without seeing results for 5-7 years, and it's important to be first in a big market.
Obviously, this worked for Amazon, and there are some opportunities you won't be able to take advantage of in any other way, but it's certainly high risk. I mean, Pets.com arguably followed much of this advice.
I suspect what really separates Amazon from the pack is their actual customer experience--but that's only 1 of 6 points here.
Re: What Jeff Bezos Knew Back in 1997 That Made Amazon a Gorilla
#8I observed these traits from a unique vantage point.
Worked with the "world's biggest auction site" for 8 years since 2002. I remembered the pride the company had about it being profitable from Day 1 and the dismissal of Amazon for not turning any profit for so many years. The company had strict quarterly goals and any decision, no matter how appropriate, if it hurts the quarterly goals was discarded.
Comparing this myopic view with Amazon's patience, stubbornness and customer focus; it's no wonder that Amazon went from half to more than double the market cap of my previous company.
Re: What Jeff Bezos Knew Back in 1997 That Made Amazon a Gorilla
#9My favorite: "It’s ok to make mistakes but it’s not ok to be timid." I know in silicon valley that sort of thinking is encouraged, but in most of corporate America it's very rare.
If your job is to shepherd, say, Proctor and Gamble forward, then the upside of boldness is radically less than if you're Amazon. And the downside of boldness, profligate spending, is likely to come out of your margins without ever being made up in the long term.
In a relatively mature segment, operational discipline is more important than big ideas and plans. Since the reward system is different, it attracts different people, and a more suitable mentality.
This is heavily related to why it's so often that the best people from a growth company leave as the business matures -- the skills that make you great at growing a company will not make you equally successful at managing an existing business, even aside from the fact that growth-company people usually don't like doing the more mundane tasks of a later-stage business.
Re: What Jeff Bezos Knew Back in 1997 That Made Amazon a Gorilla
#10Yup, that is why I bought Amazon stock in 2005 (really, from an interview that was very similar to this one). Jeff Bezos talks about long term thinking and also executes on it.
I think it also relates to the point made a few weeks ago about Silicon Valley being ADD in some respects -- chasing the hottest new thing, rather than conscientiously building value over years. I think someone said something about Bezos choosing Seattle for that reason. He wasn't from that area like Bill Gates -- he was in NYC I believe and moved out to Seattle to start the company.