The 5 secrets of Jeff Bezos that made Amazon succeed

The triumph of Amazon is the mirror in which many entrepreneurs look to bring their business idea to fruition. These young, and not so young, novice entrepreneurs copy Jeff Bezos in his way of working, his way of managing, his investments. However, Tom Alberg, a former member of the company’s board, just revealed the five secrets of the tycoon of e-commerce in his new book ‘Flyers: how cities are creating their own futures’.

Alberg, now managing director of Madrona Venture Group, was one of Amazon’s first investors, when no one wanted to trust their money to this business idea. What at that time was defined as the new online book sales company, did not seem like a great competition for Barnes & Noble, the largest bookstore in the United States.

However, Bezos convinced different investors, Alberg among them, that his medium and long-term plan and his solid results in the initial phase of the company were sufficient guarantee to bet in favor of Amazon. In view of the whole world it is that he was not confused. But, What led this company to become one of the best valued in the world?

Obsession for the customer

The mantra of any business is “the customer is always right”. However, how much do these companies really care about their consumers? That’s the question Bezos asked himself and the one that became Amazon’s cornerstone.

“The most important thing is the obsession with the customer”Alberg wrote in the book. Companies don’t have to focus on their competitors, they have to focus on their audience, said the investor.

“Customers are always beautifully and wonderfully dissatisfied. A constant desire to please customers drives us to constantly invent on their behalf,” Bezos told his board members, according to the book.

This obsession has led Bezos all these years to take decisions that could harm the company but benefit the customer, as Alberg tells.

Constant invention and innovation

Again, this rule is again closely tied to the customer. According to this investor, new inventions and constant innovation have a lot to say when it comes to satisfying the consumer.

Bezos’s theory is that the innovation strategy of any company has to respond to the interests of the client. In this sense, making decisions will always be much easier when the board of directors asks “which decision benefits the client the most.”

The two pizza rule

Considering the name of this rule, it could well be another of the typical extravagances of these tycoons. However, it is a sound decision that focuses decision-making very well.

According to Bezos, the greater the number of people who sit around a table to make a decision, the longer it will take to reach a successful conclusion, the less productive the meeting will be. For this reason, the ultimate goal of these meetings should be that the majority of the people involved end up agreeing with each other, rather than each one expressing their opinions.

But what does the two pizza rule refer to? As Alberg writes, this rule is really easy to adhere to. “Don’t include more people in your meetings than you could feed with two pizzas”.

Think long term

This is another of Bezos’ cornerstones. A good businessman is forcing you to control long-term times. That is to say, must know how to anticipate the future. Decision-making will depend on this.

This principle can range from launching a new business to investing in new technologies. The example Alberg points to is Bezos’ early adoption of Artificial Intelligence.

“When companies were just beginning to recognize the possibilities of machine learning and artificial intelligence, Jeff told the board that he intended to use artificial intelligence in every part of the business,” as the investor writes in his book.

Optimism about the future

It could appear that it refers to the previous rule and, in part, it could be extrapolated. However, Alberg refers to the optimism Bezos had about what the years to come would bring us.

‘The philosophy of day 1’, that’s what the former Amazon board member calls it. A thought that is based on the fact that, although Amazon, and the Internet itself, may seem like mature projects, they are still only at the beginning. A principle that allows the company to think of new initiatives to innovations regardless of its position in the market.