Through trial and error, booms and busts, Amazon has evolved guiding principles and cultural practices to keep its growth machine humming. These involve delighting customers, crushing competitors one by one, hollowing out the retail sector, and disrupting industry after industry, from bookselling to online retailing to personal electronics and from web services and software to healthcare and beyond.
In reviewing the company’s rise from a converted Seattle garage in 1994, I’ve searched for the practices responsible for Amazon’s incredible success. Here are five that stand out
Corporate culture must be open and flexible enough to adjust to continuously changing customer expectations, market landscapes, and technology innovation.
These leadership principles are part of every process at Amazon and frame its underlying corporate DNA. However, Jeff Bezos also points to the risk that “the process becomes the proxy for the result you want. You stop looking at outcomes and make sure you’re doing the process right.” Hence, principles — and processes — are continuously evolving.
The most important concepts are about “working backwards,” which drives any process change through the lens of the customer. The starting point is defining who and how users will benefit before settling on what needs to change. Then, the next steps are writing narratives, building single-threaded teams, focusing on input — not output — metrics, and distinguishing between two-way versus one-way door decisions. Finally, hiring creative builders via the “bar raiser solution” and keeping “day one thinking” alive helps to make that innovation sustainable.
Of course, not every firm can be like Amazon.
Amazon Drives Innovation from the Top
Surveys show that 79 percent of senior leaders consider innovation as one of their top three priorities. Yet, day-to-day, what often consumes senior management’s attention is the “delivery engine” rather than the “discovery engine.” Not at Amazon.
Amazon Thinks of Ideas as Assets
Most companies think of their assets as being things like their plants, equipment, and yes, their people. Bezos is the ideator in chief. “I could fill this whiteboard in an hour with 100 ideas,” Bezos boasted to one interviewer, and there is little reason to doubt him.
Bezos believes that a continuous stream of ideas is what fuels growth. He sees his function as creating the cultural alignment to value and respect ideas at all levels and act with a sense of urgency to speed their implementation. Bezos sees his role as channeling this “opportunity mindset” to every individual, department, business unit, and outpost.
For new employees, it’s a strange initial experience,” Bezos admits. “They’re just not accustomed to sitting silently in a room doing study hall with many executives.” Strange yes, but powerful as well.
And just one more way in which Amazon innovates how it innovates.
Amazon’s Business and Research Partnerships
Amazon and Microsoft partnered to integrate Alexa and Cortana
In August of 2017, Amazon and Microsoft entered into a partnership for better integration of their Alexa and Cortana digital assistants. This cross-platform integration would allow Alexa users to access some unique aspects of Cortana and vice-versa.
Amazon and Ford partnered to access cars from a distance
Ford and Amazon teamed up to allow consumers to access their vehicles from a distance. With the help of Alexa – Amazon’s cloud-based voice service, the car lets you control functions such as lighting, security systems, garage doors, and other Alexa smart home devices.
Dish Network and Amazon Wireless Collaboration
Dish Network is looking to use an e-commerce platform, streaming service, home assistant (Amazon Echo), and proposed drone delivery services in collaboration with Amazon and T-Mobile USA. According to the deal, Dish will utilize its spectrum for wireless service in partnership with Amazon and T-Mobile USA.
Cognizant is a Premier Consulting Partner for AWS
provides services like migration competency, big data, workspaces, healthcare and life sciences, financial services, and SharePoint. The AWS Cognizant Team (ACT) delivers the differentiating integration strategy and creates industry-specific and horizontal solutions for their mutual customers.
Amazon and Accenture united
Amazon and Accenture combined to precipitate real innovation by combining AI tools into a contact center running from the cloud. Amazon offers Amazon Connect, a fully hosted, customizable, cloud-based contact center service. The collab structures such that Accenture would help its clients rapidly deploy Amazon Connect at scale and build vertical industry applications that use AWS AI services.
Nokia announces a Strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services.
Nokia and Amazon Web Services (AWS) collaborated, given the rising need for “tighter integration” between networking and IT infrastructure.
2nd Watch Named AWS Management Tools Service Delivery Launch Partner
2nd Watch achieved AWS Service Delivery Launch Partner status for three Amazon Web Services (AWS) Management Tools in the AWS Service Delivery Program.
Ericsson wants a presence in Cloud Computing by merging with AWS
Ericsson, one of the top companies working on 5G, also wants to strengthen its position in cloud computing. In 2016, the Swiss giant worked with AWS to enhance its infrastructure for developing and deploying mobile apps.
Conclusion
For quite some time, Amazon has been focusing its efforts on cloud services and its assistant, Alexa, for which it has raised millions in Funding. Further, it is also trying to make Alexa a smarter assistant by hiring more AI talents.
Prime, after record-breaking sales, is getting bigger in India and the Middle East. Further, the company is trying to get a hold of the Indian Fintech market for which, in Dec 2017, it funded a digital lending startup Capital Float.
If you have any further questions or need assistance with your Amazon journey, please get in touch with the BellaVix Team. We’re here to help you every step of the way on your path to success on Amazon. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today!
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