Amazon has a creative approach to their business model. In an interview, Jeff Bezos said “We have a very distinctive approach that we have been honing and refining and thinking about for 22 years. It’s really just a few principles that we use as we go about these activities.”
Amazon’s 4 Key Principles
1. Customer Obsession.
The most important principle, according to Bezos, is how Amazon bases its market on the fixation of consumers.
Whereas other businesses are competing-obsessed, product-obsessed, technology-obsessed, or business-obsessed, Amazon and Bezos agree that consumer focus is the easiest and healthiest way to achieve growth.
“Customer obsession is not just listening to customers. Customer obsession is also inventing on their behalf,” said Bezos in an interview
2. Eagerness to Invent.
Amazon is the leader in creativity. They have had a wide variety of results, from the spectacular failure of Amazon Fire Phone and Amazon Destinations to the tremendous popularity of Amazon Prime and Amazon Alexa.
“Customers are always dissatisfied, even when they don’t know it. Even when they think they’re happy, they actually do want a better way, and they just don’t know yet what that should be,” said Bezos.
3. Long-term Mindset.
Bezos openly expressed that he doesn’t care about his quarterly earnings. He’s more concerned about the future of Amazon in the next decade, rather than what ‘s going on now.
“I ask everybody not to think in 2-3 year time frames, but to think in 5-7 year time frames,” explains Bezos.
He states that this is not human nature, but something that you have to educate yourself about. Worrying about long-term goals is way more effective.
4. Acceptance of Failure.
When experimenting, it is impossible for every plan to be successful; nevertheless, if you have done it five times, such as setting up an Amazon Store, however you have failed the sixth time, there is no justification for this lack of implementation. Therefore, failure is the only true path to success if it is due to experimentation.
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