The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles Behind the World's Most Disruptive Company

It forced sellers to compete on price, selection, and convenience, while markedly improving the customer experience.

“He likes you,” one explains with a pat on the shoulder. “He wouldn’t take the time to embarrass you like that if he didn’t.”

“The andon cord is literally a cord that workers can pull—a cord they should pull—any time something in the manufacturing process goes wrong that would compromise the quality of the product or safety of the people. The line stops immediately.

Amazon recently replaced the leadership principle “Be Vocally Self-Critical” with “Learn and Be Curious.”

But now that you know the story behind the story, you can see that inventing Item Authority and the other elements of Amazon’s third-party seller program—and then simplifying them for the benefit of every user of the platform—was far from easy.

Each team defines its business plan, metrics, and product roadmap. This drives motivation and continuous improvement, while providing transparency and accountability for future investment and results.

dust. The copycat often has a distinct advantage in this competition; the original innovator is typically emotionally bound to the original idea and hesitant to change it. The mimic has the benefit of an objective perspective and a willingness to course-correct as needed.

Amazon faced a similar challenge when they decided to sell used books. A radical idea? Certainly. Did it upset the publishers who sold them books? Absolutely. But it was an idea that worked for consumers, and paved the way for Amazon to create a multibillion-dollar third-party seller business.

Look Inside the Book.™ In 2001, Amazon.com launched this program based on a simple concept—the idea of emulating the bookstore experience by allowing Amazon. com surfers to look at pages inside the book before buying.

During my years at Amazon, everyone understood that our goal was to be an Everyday Low Price leader. To do that, we had to make sure our prices matched those of our image competitors—Walmart, Best Buy, and Target. During one S-Team meeting, someone opined, “If the retailer with the lowest price doesn’t have the item in stock, then we shouldn’t matc