Leadership Principals
Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.
What is Customer Obsession
COE
What is the abbreviation of Correction of Errors
A complete process and a "virtuous cycle" that reinforces and improves itself as it operates. It takes controllable inputs and transforms them into ongoing outputs to address a recurring business challenge.
What is a "Mechanism"?
This is the location where Amazon first started and the first door desk was crafted.
What is "Jeff's Garage"? (Also acceptabl: Bellevue, Washington)
This product was named as it was expected to "light a fire" of intellectual learning in its users.
What are "Kindle e-readers"
Leaders think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say "that’s not my job."
What is Ownership
IC
What is the abbreviation of Individual Contributor?
Jeff described a starter pack for this term thinking in his 2016 Letter to Shareholders, which includes true customer obsession, the ability to resist proxies, embracing external trends, and executing high velocity decisions.
What religious founder shares his name with a member of the risk team?
Who was "Joseph Smith"
Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them.
What is Learn and be Curious
JDI
What is the abbreviation of "Just Do it"?
This term refers to areas where the absence of a warning signal is a sign that something is wrong.
What is "Dogs not Barking"?
Prior to being remodeled, the first Amazon Corporate office was previously this type of service building.
What is a "Hospital"
Named after the very first Customer Service CRM (think CSC), this SLU Amazon building houses Corporate members of customer Service.
What is "Arizona" (SEA29)
Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size, or fixed expense.
What is Frugality
VOC
What is the abbreviation of "Voice of the Customer"?
A principle or belief. Many groups around Amazon have crafted these and are guided by them. They appear at the beginning of narratives (e.g., 6-Pagers), in roadmaps, and in other documents to help ensure that the plan put forth by a team is consistent with its beliefs.
What are "Tenets"
This was the name Amazon was almost given prior to its launch.
What is "Cadabra"?
Allowing Amazon to gracefully deal with website downtime, these furry folk grace our 404 pages.
Who are "The Dogs of Amazon?"
Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders do not believe their or their team’s body odor smells of perfume. They benchmark themselves and their teams against the best.
What is Earn Trust
BHAG
What is the abbreviation of "Big Hairy Audacious Goal"?
Also known as the virtuous cycle, this starts with providing a great customer experience that will drive traffic to Amazon.com. That increased traffic attracts sellers who want to sell on our site, increasing our selection, lowering costs, and ultimately improving the customer experience. Focusing attention on any and all of these components – customer experience, traffic, sellers, selection, cost – distributes more energy and velocity to all of them. The whole system grows.
What is "the Amazon Fly Wheel"?
What was the title of the first book sold on Amazon.com?
What is "Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought"
Pressing Alt+ Shift+ M lead to this iconic hidden game on the second generation of Amazon's first branded product.