Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos explaining his philosophy and commitment to the customer-service culture of Zappos:
Obsess over customers. For Amazon, everything starts with the customer. While they pay attention to competitors, they don’t let competitors drive what they do.
Invent. Amazon listens to customers, recognizing the need to invent solutions for them, since they can’t do it themselves. Jeff see this as a critical part of what Amazon does — invent on behalf of customers.
Think long term. Amazon strategists try to look five years out. They don’t worry about taking actions that, while they might pay immediate dividends for customers, won’t pay off for the company or its investors for five to seven years. They have a willingness to be misunderstood, since so many people only understand short-term needs and short-term thinking.
It’s always Day 1. There are always more opportunities to invent more for customers. It’s never over or too late.
“When we were working on our own startup, back in the 90s, I evolved another trick for partitioning the day. I used to program from dinner till about 3 am every day, because at night no one could interrupt me. Then I’d sleep till about 11 am, and come in and work until dinner on what I called “business stuff.” I never thought of it in these terms, but in effect I had two workdays each day, one on the manager’s schedule and one on the maker’s.”
“Music helps me when I’m coding, which is still my priority. When you’re coding, you really have to be in the zone. I’ll listen to a single song, over and over on repeat, like a hundred times.” — Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress and Automattic
Funny, I do the same thing. It makes me more productive.
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