NEW DELHI / NEW YORK: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently outlined four core principles that, according to him, differentiate Amazon from other companies. Speaking in an interview with Charlie Rose in 2016, Bezos emphasized that these principles form the backbone of Amazon’s strategy and culture, guiding its growth across diverse business verticals.
Jeff Bezos on the 4 principles that differentiated Amazon from other companies
“The thing that connects everything that Amazon does — our #1 conviction, philosophy, and principle — is customer obsession, as opposed to competitor obsession. We are always focused on the customer,… pic.twitter.com/BGvVkruouh
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The first principle, Bezos said, is customer obsession. “The thing that connects everything that Amazon does — our #1 conviction, philosophy, and principle — is customer obsession, as opposed to competitor obsession. We are always focused on the customer, working backwards from the customer’s needs, and developing new skills internally so that we can satisfy what we perceive to be future customer needs,” he explained.
Bezos continued: “It seems like we’re in a bunch of different businesses. We have Amazon Web Services, which is completely different from our Amazon Prime business or Amazon Marketplace or Amazon Studios and so on. But really the way that those businesses run are very similar, and it all starts with customer obsession. But it’s not just customer obsession.”
The second principle Bezos highlighted is pioneering. “We have a very inventive culture. We like to pioneer and invent. There are other very effective business strategies. Pioneering is not the only effective business strategy. In fact, some people would argue it’s not the most effective one. Close-following can be a very good business strategy, and it’s worked many times if you look at the history of business. But it just isn’t who we are,” he said.
Bezos also emphasized the importance of a long-term outlook. “That’s another common thread that runs through everything we do. We are very happy to invest in new initiatives that are very risky for 5-7 years. Most companies won’t do that. Companies will invest for very long periods of time in the cases where the outcomes are more certain, but it’s the combination of the risk-taking and the long-term outlook that make Amazon special,” he said.
Finally, Bezos stressed the value of operational excellence. “Doing things well. Finding defects and working backwards. That’s all the incremental improvement that most successful companies are very good at. If you’re not good at finding the root cause of defects and fixing that root cause — you don’t ever want to let defects flow downstream — that’s a key part of doing a good job in any business, in my opinion,” he added.
These four principles — customer obsession, pioneering, long-term thinking, and operational excellence — form the foundation of Amazon’s approach, allowing the company to innovate consistently while maintaining a strong focus on the customer experience.
