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‘Let Curiosity Be Your Compass’ - Three Takeaways From Jeff Bezos As He Steps Down As Amazon CEO

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As the world reacts to the announcement from Jeff Bezos to his fellow 1.3 million “Amazonians” today about his excitement to transition into the position of Executive Chairman, and that Andy Jassy will step into the role of CEO of Amazon, Bezos has reminded his colleagues and indeed the world of the humble beginnings of how one of the world’s most recognised companies started.

It was 27 years ago that Bezos began with just an idea, and quit his New York based job at a hedge fund to move to a rented house in Seattle.

There he started the business in his garage, packing boxes of books on his knees on a concrete floor and the question he was asked most frequently at the time was “what’s the internet?”

Fast forward to today, and as one of the richest people on the planet moves on to a purely strategic role which will allow him to spend more time on his philanthropic endeavours, here are three take-outs of his trajectory of success that stand out.

“Let curiosity be your compass”

Bezos believes in this principle so much, he signed his announcement to the Amazon global workforce off with it. Amazon is a pioneer - and there is a wealth of successful innovations and inventions that have been born out of that encouraged curiosity.

Whilst the organisation is quick to admit that ‘new quickly becomes normal’ much of the success has been rooted in the business being inquisitive and wanting to understand more about its consumers to in turn present solutions they hadn't even thought of.

Instigating ‘1-click shopping’ which speeds up the sales process, but also limits the amount of drop-out browsers who just get bored or change their mind before check-out.

Developing faster shipping solutions which answer the consumer need for speed, and ‘dash’ buttons and smarter subscription services which build loyalty and place Amazon front of mind - all these concepts were born out of a need to curiously undo what had been done by ‘retail’ and have a fresh and bold mindset in creating a new wave of disruptive but effective solutions.

And when it comes to the new man in the driving seat, Andy Jassy - who is the tour de force behind Amazon Web Services- the very platform that many major organisations depend on for cloud services with customers including Spotify, Expedia, Disney and AirBnB. In terms of having curiosity and innovation at heart, the Amazon baton has been passed to safe hands.

Hiring the right people is crucial to success

To build and sustain a culture of innovation and curiosity, you need the right people as enablers of the vision. And Bezos highlighted in an interview earlier this year that he looks for people who could ‘tutor’ him.

“If you ever get lucky enough to be hiring people, make sure you're hiring people that not only you can teach, but make sure you’re hiring people who are also going to teach you things.”

It is a topic that has been covered with Bezos during several interviews, and you can understand why. Who wouldn't want to know the hiring strategy of one of the most iconic names in business today? Other qualities that Bezos has mentioned he looks for in candidates are summarised by CNBC and include:

  1. Someone who will listen a lot and ‘change their mind’ a lot
  2. People who want to ‘dis-confirm’ what they feel to be known and true and are comfortable to adapt to new data and trends
  3. Natural “mavericks” - those who are known successful challengers and disruptors.

Big bets, but don’t bet the whole business

“What really matters is, companies that don’t continue to experiment, companies that don’t embrace failure, they will eventually get in a desperate position where the only thing they can do is a Hail Mary bet at the very end of their corporate existence. Whereas companies that are making bets all along, even big bets, but not bet-the-company bets, prevail.”

Emphasising in an interview with Henry Blodget in 2014 that a ‘bet the company’ bet is the very last thing a company should do, Bezos was clear that the success of Amazon up to that point, had been one reliant on taking calculated risks.

And that has been a big part of the journey from the concrete floor based packing revolutionised when a colleague said to Bezos ‘Let’s get packing tables’ to Amazons disruption of the very way we shop, this is an organisation that has only grown to such a scale by not following any traditional route.

And whilst Amazon has reached dizzy heights. Bezos has been honest about ‘making billions of dollars of failures’ too - as he acknowledges that innovation cannot be achieved without a chance of failure. He has highlighted Pets.com and Kosmo.com as examples of failures.

The company has also created a fair share of controversy - in scandals that include tax avoidance, particularly highlighted in the UK and the treatment and payment of Amazon staff .

There is also a question hanging on how much Amazons disruption has caused the downfall of other retailers - especially smaller businesses, leading to the perception that this Goliath of the internet is unbeatable.

Yet others highlight that Amazon has become a platform on which to effectively sell as a small business, and that working with the giant rather than against it is the best course of action.

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