AMAZON’S LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES
The company’s 14 principles, with condensed descriptions:
- Customer Obsession: Leaders start with the customer and work backwards.
- Ownership: Leaders are owners.
- Invent and Simplify: Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify.
- Are Right, A Lot: Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts.
- Learn and Be Curious: Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves.
- Hire and Develop the Best: Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion.
- Insist on the Highest Standards: Leaders have relentlessly high standards—many people may think these standards are unreasonably high.
- Think Big: Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
- Bias for Action: Speed matters in business.
- Frugality: Accomplish more with less.
- Earn Trust: Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully.
- Dive Deep: Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdote differ.
- Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit: Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting.
- Deliver Results: Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion.
