The Amazon Way - What’s Changed, What Has Stayed the Same - Episode 251
INTERVIEW WITH JOHN ROSSMAN
DESCRIPTION
In today’s podcast, we are talking with John Rossman about his consulting company, his books, the Amazon principles and so much more!
Make sure you tune in to find out more!
John Rossman is a business strategist, operator and expert on digital transformation, leadership and business reinvention. He has consulted with many great brands including Novartis, Fidelity Investments, Microsoft, Walmart, and Nordstrom. He served as senior innovation advisor at T-Mobile and senior technology advisor to the Gates Foundation. He is the founder of Rossman Partners, a management consulting team helping clients compete and win in the digital era. He is an operator and builder whose love is diving into business problems and customer needs designing solutions and business opportunities. He is a former Amazon executive responsible for launching the Amazon marketplace business in 2002. He has authored three books – The Amazon Way book series and The Digital Leader Newsletter.
“Treat others as you would like to be treated. Employees, vendors, partners, brands, small companies, competitors, press, critics, community.”
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The Amazon Way, John’s first book, was first published in 2014. Kiri and John talk about what has changed since when the book was published and it has been revised twice since!
The Amazon way is about the Amazon leadership principles, John talks about how and if any of Amazon’s leadership principles have been challenged or disregarded and with which outcomes.
John reads the principle he suggested in “The Golden Rule” and how two months after John mentioned the principle in the book, Amazon added two new principles to their rules. These principles are meant to be like a constitution and are meant to evolve, the change that Amazon recognizes is that they play a new role as they evolve with the principles, according to John.
John mentions how he didn’t write this book for Amazon, but for others. How to win and compete in the digital era.
John and Kiri talk about what’s timeless about the Amazon leadership principles, the underlying goals and principles, what John recognizes as timeless is that it’s good to always have ambition and optimism about your future. The second timeless principle is to have high expectations from your team and yourself. John talks about the third timeless principle as well.
Kiri asks about how brands that are selling on (or to) Amazon often feel insignificant and at the behest of the whims of algorithms. Many brands are used to this now, but initially the “hands off the wheel approach” was bristling to many brand execs, and not how the retail business worked in earlier years. There’s no one to call, you’re really a drop in the ocean. John shares his view of this.
John shares his experience with companies that he is consulting, and which are the top questions they have for him, and how those questions have changed through time.
Amazon as once a disruptor in a number of different industries and categories, is Amazon now primed for disruption themselves? John doesn’t think that Amazon is at risk of disruption, but to some degree, he says, Bezos forecasted years ago that he said it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when, but that it’s his job to make sure it’s not in his lifetime. John is still very optimistic about Amazon’s future and fortune, the "buy with prime" feature that they recently launched has the capability to be another massive way of innovation and growth and disruption of other eCommerce businesses.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Connect with Kiri Masters
Learn more about Bobsled Marketing, an Acadia Company
Connect with John Rossman
Learn more about The Amazon Way
The Digital Leader Newsletter by John Rossman
