Rating: 
(New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2013)
372 pgs
Jeff Bezos presents an intriguing conundrum to students of leadership. His success makes him impossible to ignore. But his unconventional methods and demanding leadership style can be troubling to those who believe that leaders ought to build up their followers even as they build their companies. One thing is sure: Bezos’ leadership model will be studied for many years to come.
Jeff Bezos’ mother became pregnant with him when she was 16. When he was seventeen months old, his mother filed papers to divorce his father. Jeff’s father disappeared from the scene and lost track of his son for many years. His mother would remarry a refugee from Cuba and relocate to Houston. It was not the formative years one would expect for someone who would later create Amazon.
Rather than summarizing this book, I’d like to pull out several key leadership beliefs or practices (good and bad) that stood out to me as I read this book.
First, Bezos was a gifted, focused child. In the sixth grade, he developed a system to evaluate the performance of his sixth grade teachers! (4).
Bezos followed his dream. Even though he had a successful career on Wall Street, he left it to head to Seattle and establish Amazon. When his parents invested in his fledgling company, Bezos felt it only right to warn them that there was a 70% chance his company would fail (37). For years Amazon has been the outgrowth of the dream of Jeff Bezos.
Bezos did not believe in work/life balance. If employees were concerned about spending adequate time at home with their family, Amazon was not for them (44).
Bezos was willing to make tough decisions. After five years, Bezos believed Amazon had outgrown his partner, Kaphan’s skills, and he moved him to the sidelines. Though he appreciated him, Bezos would not allow his dream to be held back by other’s inability to keep up.
Bezos was obsessed with the customer. He demanded that customers have a good experience when dealing with his company. If one customer complained, he assumed others had the same problem. His goal was to give customers a great experience, not merely to make money. (As a result, he made a lot of money!).
Bezos rejected the notion that you throw more personnel on big problems. He believed that adding personnel actually slowed work down on projects (168).
At times Bezos would leave visual reminders of mistakes employees had made to remind staff of how not to behave (174). He once removed all of the video monitors in the conference rooms because he did not believe in that communication process. He left the brackets in the walls for a long time to remind people that mistakes or sloppy thinking would not be tolerated.
Bezos rejected the approach that companies had to be constantly working on their communication. He claimed: “Communication is a sign of dysfunction. . . . we should be trying to figure out a way for teams to communicate less with each other, not more” (167). Bezos thought that a healthy, organic workplace environment would require less, not more communication.
Bezos decided that he would not meet one on one with his direct reports. He felt it wasted too much time and was repetitive (175).
Bezos refused to allow his teams to use Power Points in their presentations (175). He demanded that they write out a narrative, as if it was a press release, that was no longer than six pages. He felt this made people think more deeply. He claimed: “I don’t want this place to become a country club.”
Bezos also enforced a “two pizza rule.” This meant that teams working on projects at Amazon could not be larger than what could be fed with two pizzas (169). He believed that larger teams were less effective.
At times Bezos could use a “scorched earth” policy to destroy competitors. Once he got you in his sights, it was extremely difficult to fend Amazon off. Bezos could also be extremely demanding of his suppliers and partners, often resorting to bullying to get the low prices he was seeking.
Bezos observed that some large companies were generally loved, and others were hated. He listed Apple, Nike, Disney, Google, Whole Foods, Costco and UPS as companies people generally liked. He listed Walmart, Microsoft, Goldman and Sachs, and Exxon Mobile as companies others feared. He wanted Amazon to be a company people liked. He observed:
Rudeness is not cool.
Defeating tiny guys is not cool.
Close-following is not cool.
Young is cool.
Risk taking is cool.
Polite is cool.
Winning is cool.
Defeating bigger, unsympathetic guys is cool.
Inventing is cool.
Explorers is cool.
Conquerors are not cool.
Obsessing over competitors is not cool.
Empowering others is cool.
Capturing all the value only for the company is not cool.
Leadership is cool.
Conviction is cool.
Straightforwardness is cool.
Pandering to the crowd is not cool.
Hypocrisy is not cool.
Authenticity is cool.
Thinking big is cool.
The unexpected is cool.
Missionaries are cool.
Mercenaries are not cool. (318).
In many ways, Bezos is a classic example of an American entrepreneur who was brilliant, driven, and a visionary who thought on a grander scale than those he worked with. His genius, much like that of Steve Jobs, could lead him to become extremely impatient with smaller thinking subordinates. His biographer notes: “In a way, the entire company is scaffolding built around his brain” (330).
Unfortunately, like Steve Jobs, Bezos’ impatience and anger became legendary. Some of his more “printable” comments to staff included:
If that’s our plan, I don’t like our plan.
I’m sorry, did I take my stupid pills today?
Are you trying to take credit for something you had nothing to do with?
Are you lazy or just incompetent?
If I hear that idea again I’m gonna have to kill myself.
Does it surprise you that you don’t know the answer to that question?
Why are you ruining my life?
We need to apply some human intelligence to this problem.
Can someone get me the A team document? I don’t want to waste my time with the B team document.
Clearly there is no excuse for berating and demeaning staff. Yet it is interesting that despite his demanding leadership style, his company has grown to dwarf those who appeared to be led more professionally. Bezos lost many key staff over the years. At least one claimed he suffered PTSD after working at Amazon. Nevertheless, Bezos, perhaps by his sheer willpower and genius, managed to move his company forward. Amazon reached 100 billion in sales in record time. Bezos, is now one of the top 15 wealthiest people in America.
This book provides a heavy dose of “Amazon.” It offers interesting insights into how innovative developments such as Amazon Prime and Kindle were developed. What seems natural to us today, such as e-books, were not viewed by many as the future of reading when Bezos pushed for them. What Bezos did was anticipate the future and then he created it.
It is also fascinating how his biological father did not even know his son was one of the wealthiest, most successful businessmen in America until much later in his life. While is father was running a bicycle repair shop in Glendale, Arizona, his son was ranked 14th in personal wealth and led one of the world’s most successful companies.
This book can drag into the tedium at times of distribution systems and technical information. It would also have been interesting to know more about Bezos the husband and father. Even his reconnecting with his biological father is passed over quickly.
Nevertheless, what Amazon has done to business makes it a force that must be considered. Since most people today could not imagine living without an Amazon Prime membership, perhaps this is a must read. If nothing else, readers will feel compelled to ask: “And what is the dream I am willing to invest my life in?”
by Richard Blackaby