Published on: December 23, 2009
As part of its end-of-the-year issue, Newsweek features an interview with e-tailing pioneer Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon.com. Some excerpts:On why Amazon is successful... “We start with the customer and we work backward. We learn whatever skills we need to service the customer. We build whatever technology we need to service the customer. The second thing is, we are inventors, so you won't see us focusing on ‘me too’ areas. We like to go down unexplored alleys and see what's at the end. Sometimes they're dead ends. Sometimes they open up into broad avenues and we find something really exciting.
“And then the third thing is, we're willing to be long-term-oriented, which I think is one of the rarest characteristics. If you look at the corporate world, a genuine focus on the long term is not that common. But a lot of the most important things we've done have taken a long time.”
On working backwards from customer needs... “There are two ways that companies can extend what they're doing. One is they can take an inventory of their skills and competencies, and then they can say, ‘OK, with this set of skills and competencies, what else can we do?’ And that's a very useful technique that all companies should use.
“But there's a second method, which takes a longer-term orientation. It is to say, rather than ask what are we good at and what else can we do with that skill, you ask, who are our customers? What do they need? And then you say we're going to give that to them regardless of whether we currently have the skills to do so, and we will learn those skills no matter how long it takes.
“Kindle is a great example of that. It's been on the market for two years, but we worked on it for three years in earnest before that. We talked about it for a year before that. We had to go hire people to build a hardware-engineering team to build the device. We had to acquire new skills. There's a tendency, I think, for executives to think that the right course of action is to stick to the knitting - stick with what you're good at. That may be a generally good rule, but the problem is the world changes out from under you if you're not constantly adding to your skill set.”
- KC's View:
- Bezos may be speaking specifically about Amazon and using the Kindle as an example, but these words ought to be taken very seriously by anybody in the retail business.
Focus on the customer. Maintain an eye on the long term. And keep adding to your skill set.
Makes sense to me.