When I think of a truly successful businessperson, I think of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com. Jeff didn't become successful and a multi-millionaire on his first try. He fell once (A9), and fell twice (Auctions), and thrived on the third run (Amazon.com).
“You need a culture that high-fives small and innovative ideas and senior executives [that] encourage ideas,” he said. In order for innovative ideas to bear fruit, companies need to be willing to “wait for 5-7 years, and most companies don’t take that time horizon.”
“Focusing on the customer makes a company more resilient,” he added. “We had to tell employees that they shouldn’t feel smarter because the stock went up 35 percent, because then they would feel 35 percent dumber if the stock price went down.” His tip on managing during tough times such as those faced by Amazon during the bust was to communicate more with its employees. With too many external inputs, Bezos thinks it’s important for companies to be talking with its people more often, easing their concerns.
The difference between founders and professional managers is that founders are stubborn about the vision of the business, and keep working the details. Professional managers, when things don’t work, want to change the vision. The trick to being an entrepreneur is to know when to be stubborn and when to be flexible: Be stubborn about the vision, but flexible about tactics, Bezos said. For instance, you can be f
Bezos listed a few prerequisites for innovation and inventing, but the biggest one is willingness to fail. You need to think for the long term and be misunderstood for a long period of time. “If you can’t do those things, then you need to limit yourself to sustainable innovation.” In other words, seek incremental change to grow your business.
In talking about the need for thinking long term, Bezos said you need conviction. I totally agree — if you take a short-term approach, then you are constantly stuck with trying to deal with minutiae. He noted how much hated the idea of “sticking to one’s knitting” and not taking chances. That said, Bezos was clear in pointing out that his company looks at everything from a customer’s standpoint. “We do make business decisions in a very deliberate way,” he said. “We work backwards from customer needs.”
lexible about reducing costs, but you don’t change your vision to reduce costs. Great point, because more often than not, founders get caught up in the tactics and change their direction as a result.
People overemphasize their failures when trying something new. Actually failure is not that expensive and it’s part of work. If something fails, then you’re going to shut it down and cut your losses, Bezos said. The focus, he said, should be on errors of omission. These are the chances not taken. He is not ashamed of his failures — A9 search and Auctions are two examples he cites often. Both markets were big enough for Amazon to take a flyer.
“You need a culture that high-fives small and innovative ideas and senior executives [that] encourage ideas,” he said. In order for innovative ideas to bear fruit, companies need to be willing to “wait for 5-7 years, and most companies don’t take that time horizon.”
“Focusing on the customer makes a company more resilient,” he added. “We had to tell employees that they shouldn’t feel smarter because the stock went up 35 percent, because then they would feel 35 percent dumber if the stock price went down.” His tip on managing during tough times such as those faced by Amazon during the bust was to communicate more with its employees. With too many external inputs, Bezos thinks it’s important for companies to be talking with its people more often, easing their concerns.
The difference between founders and professional managers is that founders are stubborn about the vision of the business, and keep working the details. Professional managers, when things don’t work, want to change the vision. The trick to being an entrepreneur is to know when to be stubborn and when to be flexible: Be stubborn about the vision, but flexible about tactics, Bezos said. For instance, you can be f
Bezos listed a few prerequisites for innovation and inventing, but the biggest one is willingness to fail. You need to think for the long term and be misunderstood for a long period of time. “If you can’t do those things, then you need to limit yourself to sustainable innovation.” In other words, seek incremental change to grow your business.
In talking about the need for thinking long term, Bezos said you need conviction. I totally agree — if you take a short-term approach, then you are constantly stuck with trying to deal with minutiae. He noted how much hated the idea of “sticking to one’s knitting” and not taking chances. That said, Bezos was clear in pointing out that his company looks at everything from a customer’s standpoint. “We do make business decisions in a very deliberate way,” he said. “We work backwards from customer needs.”
lexible about reducing costs, but you don’t change your vision to reduce costs. Great point, because more often than not, founders get caught up in the tactics and change their direction as a result.
People overemphasize their failures when trying something new. Actually failure is not that expensive and it’s part of work. If something fails, then you’re going to shut it down and cut your losses, Bezos said. The focus, he said, should be on errors of omission. These are the chances not taken. He is not ashamed of his failures — A9 search and Auctions are two examples he cites often. Both markets were big enough for Amazon to take a flyer.
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