Jeff Bezos: “Blind-Alley” ExplorerClass 7: Electronic Commerce
BusinessWeekCase Summary by: Jenny Hu
Main Takeaways
-Interview with Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.
-Amazon has survived the .com bust in the late 1990s and now continues to log steady quarterly profits. This success is due to the company’s constant innovations.
-Bezos now wants to accelerate the company’s rate of innovation.
-Amazon’s customers like the constant innovation and changes; there is high customer satisfaction.
-Amazon is innovative because it is always probing, unafraid to make mistakes until it finds a huge, broad avenue. Essentially, Amazon is a “blind-alley” explorer.
More in-depth Summary
-Bezos believes being a “blind-alley” explorer is more satisfying than being a follower.
-Amazon has always been more focused on customers rather than on competitors.
-Difference between competitive culture and pioneering culture: pioneering cultures tends to be more focused on the customers. In a competitive culture, where you are watching your competitors, you’re more unlikely to be innovators. This leads to less satisfaction and less success for shareholders.
-To ensure that Amazon will continually innovate, you need to select people who love a rapid rate of change, going down alleys, and inventing.
-To keep ideas thriving, set up and organize in small, lightweight teams that have certain tools so a lot of experiments can be done per unit of time.
-Conducting experiments is easier for Amazon since it is an online company. In physical stores, signs would need to be made, furniture installed, etc. Online, experiments are conducted faster and results are also faster.
-Amazon uses small teams called “two-pizza” teams, teams small enough that they can be fed on two pizzas, approximately six people. Teams of this size are most productive; bigger teams will have to spend more time coordinating.
-Bezo does not see the rate of innovation slowing in the next 75 years.
-Bezo’s basic vision of Amazon has not changed since the beginning: be like Sony – set new standards for what it means to provide good customer experience.
Case Discussion / Digest Questions
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