What Jeff Bezos has accomplished with Amazon is one of the greatest entrepreneurial accomplishments. Thanks to Steve Anderson, this episode explores how Jeff made it happen; here’s how you can grow your business like Amazon!
Listen: Apple | Spotify | Google | Stitcher | iHeart | More Options
How to Grow Your Business Like Amazon:
Is it realistic for any business to grow their business like amazon?
Yes – It’s unlikely that anyone listening will be the next Amazon, but it doesn’t mean that we cannot learn from what Jeff Bezos has done with amazon over the last 20 years. These concepts will help all business owners think differently no matter where they are on their journey.
There are 14 growth principles that Steve Anderson has grouped into 4 cycles:
- Test
- Build
- Accelerate
- Scale
4 principles for growing your business like Amazon:
1. Testing – Encourage successful failure.
It’s the idea that they invent on behalf of the customer. An experiment by its very nature means that you are going to fail. Failure always has to be an option. Sometimes the craziest ideas actually work out. Every business needs to look at every failure and find what the success was.
? An Interesting failure of amazon – The amazon fire phone. No one bought it and it was an utter failure. They wrote off 178 million dollars in product cost that year.
In the 2018 letter, Bezos says “as the size of amazon grows the size of our failures grow. If we aren’t pushing the envelope enough to move the needle we are not experimenting enough.”
Here’s the secret to designing the ultimate customer experience
2. Build – Obsess over customers.
Very early on Bezos knew that they needed to think differently about their customers. They are not customer-focused they are obsessed with their customer. ? They have a single-minded focus and that is on the customer.
- If there is a point of friction in the buying process, they are already working on fixing it for the customer.
- No customer asked for prime. Bezos pushed for prime because his leadership team said no.
3. Accelerate – Generate velocity decisions.
Bezos describes their 2 types of decisions.
A. Non-reversible decisions.
These decisions should not be made quickly. These can not be taken back easily.
“The biggest mistake that businesses make today is not taking enough risks.”
B. Easily reversible decisions
These decisions should be made quickly and at most only have 70% of the information you feel like you should have. Although these decisions are made quickly they are still made thoughtfully and intentionally.
Bezos says: “Speed matters in business, many decisions are reversible and do not need extensive study.”
4. Scale – Believe it’s always day one.
It embraces the idea that they are a start-up. Bezos describes Day 2 as stasis followed by irrelevance followed by excruciating painful decline followed by death. Day 2 may take 20 years but are still declining.
How do you always keep that day 1 mentality? ?
You must maintain your culture. Culture must be a continuous conversation within your organization, just like it is at Amazon. You have to think and act like you are on day 1 and fighting to keep your business going.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
▶ The Bezos Letters Assessment
▶ Steve Anderson’s LinkedIn Profile
▶ Read the Book: The Bezos Letters
What is your next step to begin growing your business like Amazon?
0 Comments