As a consultant, I see companies struggling to compete with Amazon (or Amazon-like companies). Most companies struggle for a couple of reasons
- They are ego driven, with legacy execs & others relentlessly protecting their status - whereas Amazon is relentlessly data-driven
- They have poor incentive structures and are feature factories. They value velocity over outcomes. Amazon, by being more data driven, is focused on being extremely outcome oriented
- Because of the first 2, Amazon can give people and groups a tremendous amount of autonomy, whereas other orgs heavily micromanage or have structures that create more politics than value
- There's little place to hide at Amazon (which means you might work your ass off!)
To compete with Amazon, you have to learn from them, and be prepared to adopt their practices as the new industry norm. Not just dismiss them as some relentless and heartless evil empire.
- They are ego driven, with legacy execs & others relentlessly protecting their status - whereas Amazon is relentlessly data-driven
- They have poor incentive structures and are feature factories. They value velocity over outcomes. Amazon, by being more data driven, is focused on being extremely outcome oriented
- Because of the first 2, Amazon can give people and groups a tremendous amount of autonomy, whereas other orgs heavily micromanage or have structures that create more politics than value
- There's little place to hide at Amazon (which means you might work your ass off!)
To compete with Amazon, you have to learn from them, and be prepared to adopt their practices as the new industry norm. Not just dismiss them as some relentless and heartless evil empire.