Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios’ Post

Amazon gave me a chance to give my perspective on the Prime Day outage in 2018. It highlights how our thousands of engineers respond to problems, driven by core elements of our Leadership Principles. At just over 90 seconds, it may be a record for brevity by me, or possibly a testament to our video editors! If you're still more curious about this topic, you can also watch the much more detailed explanation I delivered at re:Invent last year https://lnkd.in/gpZABJm5

A good watch! Check Jim's post for video from re:invent. tldr; Mothers day problem (Sounds familiar from Computer Networks in CS?), retry storm, limiting retries, timeouts, etc. PS - You get to learn Jim's great oration skills too.

At 16, he worked a summer job at McDonald's. By 22, he graduated from Princeton and started working on Wall Street. At 30, he quit his fancy job to sell books on the internet. By 35, he was a billionaire. Here are Jeff's top 6 lessons from creating a TRILLION dollar empire🧵 1. Crisp documents, messy meetings. Amazon's meetings start with detailed 6-page memos by the presenter, and 30 minutes fort everyone to read. It makes the presenter really think and gets everyone on the same page. Afterwards, it's an open brainstorm... Seniority, rank don’t matter in Amazon meetings. What matters is the quality of thinking. Everyone gets a chance to contribute. And in every meeting, there is an empty chair that represents the customer who is always first in their thought process. 2. Look far into the future Most bad outcomes are consequences of short-term thinking. Very few people have the ability to look into 5 or 10 years ahead. Jeff’s current projects have a centuries-long vision. Takes a special kind of person to be able to do that. 3/ One-way vs two-way doors Most decisions are two-way doors: reversible and not very costly. These should be made quickly with focus on speed. But a few one-way decisions are costly to reverse. You should slow down when making these. Really think through different levels of analysis. Sounds simple, but this dichotomy is a huge unlock. 4. Self Reliance Jeff grew up spending vacations at his grandfather’s ranch in Texas. They did everything themselves: Fixing equipment, toiling ranch work, and repairing automobiles. The industriousness helped him start one of the most consequential companies in history at 30 5. Only 4 possible replies to questions: 1. Yes 2. No. 3. A number 4. I don't know, but I'll know it by X If you're uncomfortable saying option 4, you've got work to do. 6. Guiding principles You have to have a core value you are driving towards. Amazon's guiding principle is being the most customer-obsessed company in the world. Blue Origin's is being the most decisive company in the world. North Stars serve you well.

Amazon’s Door Desk: A Symbol of Frugality and Innovation In 1995, as Amazon started growing, there was a need for desks to set up the office. Instead of spending heavily on standard office furniture, Jeff Bezos went to a hardware store. He looked at desks for sale and doors for sale and found doors to be a lot cheaper. So, he bought an inexpensive wooden door, and turned it into a desk by attaching four legs. This simple yet innovative solution became more than just furniture—it became a symbol of Amazon’s culture of frugality and resourcefulness. Even today, the “Door Desk Award” is given to employees who find cost-effective ways to deliver for customers. #Amazon #Innovation #Business #Leadership Source: Amazon

"Unless you have better ones..." There are a few things that I have learned over my tenure at Amazon, that seem to work well in a lot of problems. When faced with a problem, a mission , a task or anything that requires participation of multiple of people, the best way to start is to setup tenets on how we will operate as a team and what principles we will follow. The initial alignment created by this exercise is critical. Limit them to 5 or 6 tenets , refer to them often, follow them. The trick is to have tenets created by the team, so keep this as open as possible they are referred as Tenets ... unless you have better ones. give it a try and let me know if that helps or not.

"Just 30 days into my new role as a senior editor at Amazon, I've already learned so much about the company's unique culture and way of working. From the 16 core Leadership Principles to the collaborative work style, Amazon has its own distinct vibe. It's been an eye-opening and energizing start to this new chapter in my career," shares Alexis, Senior Editor Here are a few takeaways from Alexis: 1. "The Leadership Principles are the North Star that guides each employee, each decision, each new vision for innovation,Amazonian. They're introduced from the very first job interview and applied daily."2. "The 'doc read' at the start of meetings ensures the ideas on the page take center stage - it forces us to present things clearly and focus on what matters."3. "And the dog-friendly offices? Who needs a coffee run when a dog run can perk you up?" Want to learn more about what it's like to work at Amazon? Check out the article below and https://lnkd.in/ga_VYZdH to explore open roles and get an inside look at our culture.

Some of their largest shareholders are ones that can significantly put a dent in their share price. These particular institutional investors have a significant investment and interest in CRE and returning to the prepandemic levels of office usage as they risk losing a massive amount of capital otherwise. Vanguard and Blackrock each hold significant shares, and they work together along with State Street (all 3 are closely intertwined, and State Street has a lot of banks significantly invested in the company as well, which also have significant CRE investments). Follow the money and the reason becomes clear. These companies will threaten the board with crashing the stock to force out the board with no confidence votes if they don't push more RTO. The board and C-Suite act to protect their necks and pocketbook at the expense of the company's best interests. This keeps happening and every single major corporate announcement regarding RTO has at least one of the 3 companies as major institutional investors and they have a minimum of 5-8% shares held between them. The boards that don't comply see a drop in share price that is quite dramatic which is followed by an announcement of RTO and then the share price goes back up. It is reminiscent of the distraction techniques used in a shell game or magic trick.

Amazon’s story is a wild ride! 🎢 From losing 95% of its value in just two years to skyrocketing 25X in the following decade. This video dives into the unpredictable world of tech business and the long-term mindset needed to survive and thrive. Are you ready for the rollercoaster? #Amazon #BusinessGrowth #TechTrends

#Amaversary Celebrating seven years at Amazon today! The 'every-day' passes so swiftly, that a milestone like 'seven years' tends to make you a little reflective. If there is one thing that continually makes working at Amazon a delightful experience for me, it is our culture of invention. Sharing my favorite 4 quotes that reflect this culture best.  Could I have chosen 7 quotes for 7 years - sure! But that's another thing I've learnt - don't follow something just bcz it is status quo 😋 Here we go: 1. “We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details.” 2. “Our success at Amazon is a function of how many experiments we do per year, per month, per week, per day. If you double the number of experiments you do per year, you’re going to double your inventiveness.” 3. "We need big failures in order to move the needle. If we don’t, we’re not swinging enough. You really should be swinging hard, and you will fail, but that’s okay." 4. "Keep inventing, and don’t despair when at first the idea looks crazy. Remember to wander. Let curiosity be your compass. It remains Day 1" Looking forward to more of this! 😀

Like all of us, my LinkedIn feed is full of posts about Amazon's RTO policy in a bid to help new recruits understand their "unique culture"... Now do I agree? Yes. I do believe new hires do have a higher chance of understanding a company's culture if they are in the office. But a mandated 5 days a week? Absolutely not. My Aunty has worked at Virgin for 20+ years. Throughout these years, I have visited most offices, the Notting Hill and Brook Green ones were my favourite (with the sweet machine travelling down through all floors). All of which have embodied what I know to be Virgin's culture - the lovely staff, the branding and the togetherness you can feel everyone has in working to make Virgin the best it can be. All of which remains no matter where you are. I think Amazon's RTO policy shows how much they have misunderstood the true meaning of "company culture"... Culture is so much more than seeing your colleagues in person because your boss has required you to do so. It's a balance between togetherness, your brand and freedom - in giving your employees the option to work when and where they work best. #amazon #rtopolicy