Translated material
How Jeff Bezos achieves Amazon devotion from Employees
Every year, the richest man in the world Jeff Bezos writes a large letter to Amazon shareholders, in which he talks about the strategy and principles of management that follows. The author of the book “Letters of Bezos” (in January is published by Alpina Plisher), Steve Anderson dismantled each letter of the billionaire and withdrew 14 amazon components. We publish the chapter, which tells how Bezos instills the owner’s mentality for employees.
In a letter to shareholders in 2003, Bezos almost in passing, in four sentences, outlined one of the key principles underlying Amazon growth:
“Long -term thinking is necessary and inherent only to real owners. Owners are different from tenants. I know the case when a married couple rented a house and on Christmas, the family renting him nailed the Christmas tree with nails directly to the parquet floor instead of using a special stand. Of course, only very irresponsible tenants could do this, but not a single owner would have made such a short -sighted decision. ”
Jeff Bezos, letter to shareholders, 2003
If you ever rented out your real estate, you probably had to deal with such behavior by tenants. As Bezos rightly remarks, not a single owner will treat his property like that.
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“Similarly, many investors are actually short -term tenants: they turn their portfolios so quickly that, in fact, they do not own promotions, but simply rent them.”
Jeff Bezos, letter to shareholders, 2003
When a person belongs to a person, he thinks differently and treats his property completely differently than a stranger. In other words, the owner’s mentality is significantly different from the tenant’s mentality.
Amazon owners
Yes, the owners are really different from tenants. But what does it mean for business? And how did this approach become an integral part of Amazon and its growth?
In his first letter to the shareholders of the Bezos wrote:
“We will retain a priority for working and retaining versatile and talented employees and expanding their package of remuneration at the expense of options for shares. We know that our success largely depends on our capabilities to attract and hold the motivated contingent of employees, each of whom should think as the owner of the company and, therefore, should be him. ”
Jeff Bezos, letter to shareholders, 1997
The idea of the master's approach is not new. Entrepreneurs and company managers often complain that their employees do not want to show the initiative, to take responsibility. Meanwhile, Bezos and his team in Amazon managed to bring the culture of the master's approach to a completely new level. How did they do it?
One of the key principles of Amazon leads:
- Think as an owner. Leaders are owners. They think in the long run and do not sacrifice long -term interests for the sake of short -term benefits. They act on behalf in the interests of the whole company, not just their team. They never say: "This is not my business."
Bezos wants everyone who is connected with the company to think of as its owners - from ordinary employees to top managers. Owners think about the long -term consequences of their decisions, and not just the quarterly revenue or short -term benefits that do not create long -term value. Amazon evaluates employees by whether they behave as the owners of the company, that is, people who never say: "This is not my business." The owner’s mentality is encouraged and permeates the entire Amazon culture.
In a letter from 2002, Bezos first used the term “owners of shares” instead of the generally accepted “shares holders” to appeal to shareholders. In fact, Amazon investors really “own” part of the company and therefore should behave as owners, and not tenants who are interested only in their own financial benefits, and not in the long -term success of the company.
Bezos strengthened this message in a letter from 2007, which also began with the appeal to the "owners of our shares." Since then, he appears to Amazon shareholders only.
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How to instill in employees the owner’s mentality?
So, how does Bezos instill a master's approach to everyone who is connected with his company? Here are a few secrets.
Treat people as owners. One of the simplest but most effective ways is to use the right words. Changing the appeal “shares holders” to “shares owners”, Bezos makes it clear that Amazon wants to see interested insiders in his investors, rather than third -party benefits.
Enter the employees of the company's shares. When employees own shares, they will be much more likely to be personally interested in the long -term prosperity of the company and make all their strength to this.
Put employees with the right to make decisions. When an employee can decide on behalf of the company, for example, to help the client, he feels like a master, shows the initiative and takes responsibility for the consequences.
Use meetings correctly. Amazon’s approach to holding meetings and, in particular, the compilation and discussion of six -page stories (Bezos requires employees to describe the ideas or solutions in memoirs of six pages. - Approx. The Bell) help to unite the team committed to the implementation of ideas or achieving a common goal. Thus, meetings strengthen the owner’s mentality.
Encourage invention and innovation. Amazon expects that each employee will look for ways to improve literally everything he touches.
Inspire leadership. When a new employee comes to Amazon, he is issued a copy of the “Principles of Amazon Leaders” (the internal document of Amazon, which describes the basic principles of corporate culture, the first of them are “obsession with customers.” - approx. The Bell) . The company believes that each of its employees should be a leader. Moreover, she not only talks about it, but also reinforces her words with real support. (Of course, this does not mean that all its employees succeed 100%, but they are striving for this.)
Give the opportunity to leave. People work in Amazon because they want it.
“The idea of“ paying for dismissal ”was invented by smart people in Zappos, and today we are testing it in <...> Amazon. The essence of the program “Pay for dismissal” is simple: once a year we offer our partners money to quit at their own free will. In the first year, the amount is $ 2000. Every year it increases by $ 1000 until it reaches $ 5,000. Each time we start with the phrase: “Please do not agree to this proposal!” We want them to stay. Why then do we make such an offer? The goal is to make people think about what they really want. If a person does what he really does not want to do, this is bad for himself and for the company. ”
Jeff Bezos, Letter to shareholders, 2013
Do not require absolute unanimity on all issues. To do this, the Bezos introduced the rule “do not agree, but support” into Amazon. The bottom line is that, even if employees do not agree with the proposed idea or a decision made, they must make all their strength to put them into life. In the end, all of them are one team, and everyone has a common goal - to work for the benefit of their customers.
Bezos said that once he had doubts the idea of the new television series proposed by the Amazon Studios team. He expressed his opinion to them: the topic is not interesting enough, the commercial side of the project is not attractive enough and they have a lot of other business capabilities.
“But they thought differently and insisted on this project. Then, without thinking twice, I replied: “I do not agree, but I’m ready to support, and I hope this will become the most popular video product from everything that we shot before.” Imagine how the decision would be delayed if the team had to convince me, and not just get my “yes”.
Jeff Bezos, Letter to shareholders, 2016