Business
“A dreamy business offering has at least four characteristics. Customers love it, it can grow to very large size, it has strong returns on capital, and it’s durable in time – with the potential to endure for decades.”
“We’ll approach the job with our usual tools: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, heartfelt passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and a willingness to think long-term.”
“In [Prime's] first year, we gave up many millions of dollars in shipping revenue, and there was no simple math to show that it would be worth it.”
“Maintaining a firm grasp of the obvious is more difficult than one would think it should be. But it’s useful to try.”
“What customers really want in this arena is ‘better and faster,’ and if ‘better and faster’ can come with a side dish of cost savings, terrific. But the cost savings is the gravy, not the steak.”
“You don’t want to imagine a competitor whose IT department is more nimble than yours.”
“Every company has a list of technology projects that the business would like to see implemented as soon as possible. The painful reality is that tough triage decisions are always made, and many projects never get done.”
“Once you’ve become proficient at building complex systems with AWS, you do not want to have to learn a new set of tools and APIs assuming the set you already understand works for you.”
“We know that, for some of our fulfillment and customer service center employees, Amazon will be a career. For others, Amazon might be a stepping stone on the way to a job somewhere else – a job that may require new skills.”