thinking about Jeff Bezos2004.08.04

Originally I'd planned to just throw this latest FC article on Jeff Bezos into the Assorted Sweets pile for the day, but when something comes along about one of my favourite executives, I take the time to read the thing from soup to nuts. And drool over the reading. Because I subscribe to the cult of Jeff Bezos.

Halfway through the reading I realized I had some things to say that couldn't be measured out in 255 characters or less. Things that have stood out for me in this article include:

Bezos's minions are careful to point out symbols of the company's continued frugality despite the pleasantness of the surroundings. The building was a mostly vacant Veterans Administration hospital before Bezos converted it. And all the desks are still modeled after the one Bezos built for himself in the early days (and still uses): a cheap wooden door as the top, connected by metal brackets to sawed-off two-by-fours as the legs. Bezos believes in "conserving money for things that matter," he explains. "If you look at this building, you can open the windows and get fresh air and natural light. Those things actually matter to people. Having a mahogany credenza does not."

One of the things I love the most about the way Bezos thinks is that he thinks in terms of real human needs - be it customer or worker. And he's absolutely right. Light is far more important than fancy desks. But how many executives think this way, to this level of detail, and in so many directions at once?

One of Bezos's more memorable behind-the-scenes moments came during an off-site retreat, says Risher. "People were saying that groups needed to communicate more. Jeff got up and said, 'No, communication is terrible!' " The pronouncement shocked his managers. But Bezos pursued his idea of a decentralized, disentangled company where small groups can innovate and test their visions independently of everyone else. He came up with the notion of the "two-pizza team": If you can't feed a team with two pizzas, it's too large. That limits a task force to five to seven people, depending on their appetites.

I absolutely agree. The more people involved, the longer it takes. Innovation and speed depend (regardless of the business size) in retaining that small-business, fast-mover thinking. I applaud executives who encourage this kind of risk-taking with their employees. Hire good people, trust them to do smart things, then get the hell out of their way. Yes.

Sometimes, Bezos says, you can't rely on facts because it would be too hard to test an idea, or too costly, or you can't figure out how to do it. And "sometimes we measure things and see that in the short term they actually hurt sales, and we do it anyway," he says, because Amazon managers don't think the short term is a good predictor of the long term.

One of the things I love the most about both Amazon and Google is their commitment to long-term growth even in the face of short-term risk. In my opinion (which is worth about $.02, I know, since I've never run a multimillion dollar corporation... yet) this is the only way to succeed.

Tim O'Reilly, who's a free-software enthusiast and an influential voice in Silicon Valley, had never met Bezos before he publicly attacked Amazon's move to patent its "1-Click" checkout. The feature lets customers purchase items with a single mouse click, since the Web site has already stored their billing and shipping information. "Jeff brushed me off at first," O'Reilly recalls, "but then he engaged thoughtfully and substantially on the issues. He got the message from the marketplace that using patents aggressively was bad PR." Ultimately the two men went to Washington, DC, together to lobby for changes in the patent laws.

You know, I didn't realize this (yes, for all my reading, there is stuff I don't always get to!). The whole patent thing on one-click ordering was the main black mark I've held against the company for a long time. Kudos to Bezos for listening, and helping to work out a better solution in the long term.

This shares a common thread with another business article I linked to recently (this one on Whole Foods). Both executives actually listened to the complaints, rather than dismissing them, and learned something in the bargain. More importantly, they took that learning and applied it to work for change when they realized the complaint was a valid one. It exemplifies the kind of leadership I want to emulate.

I have so much to learn from these leaders. I am learning just as fast as I can.

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