#405 – Jeff Bezos: Amazon and Blue Origin
![#405 – Jeff Bezos: Amazon and Blue Origin](https://www.podcastworld.io/podcast-images/lex-fridman-podcast-cpa1p9hu.webp)
Explore "customer-centricity" with insightful episodes like "#405 – Jeff Bezos: Amazon and Blue Origin", "Unpacking Amazon’s unique ways of working | Bill Carr (author of Working Backwards)", "FROM FASTCO WORKS AND CAPITAL ONE: Empathy and Innovation: Keeping the Customer at the Center", "A bad night for the Conservatives at the local elections" and "Zola: Shan-Lyn Ma" from podcasts like ""Lex Fridman Podcast", "Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career", "Most Innovative Companies", "The New Statesman Podcast" and "How I Built This with Guy Raz"" and more!
Bill Carr is the co-author of Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon. With a background at Amazon of over 15 years, Bill played a pivotal role in shaping the company’s global digital music and video ventures, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. After Amazon, Bill was an Executive in Residence with Maveron, an early-stage, consumer-only venture capital firm. He later served as the chief operating officer of OfferUp, the largest mobile marketplace for local buyers and sellers in the U.S. Today he’s the co-founder of Working Backwards LLC, where he helps companies implement Amazon’s time-tested management strategies. In this episode, we discuss:
• What exactly “working backwards” is, and how you do it
• Why having “single-threaded leaders” is so effective
• Inside Amazon’s intense product review process
• How to actually follow the “disagree and commit” principle
• The thinking behind the principle “Leaders are right, a lot”
• Input vs. output metrics
• Fostering a culture of risk-taking and innovation
• The role and responsibilities of a “bar raiser” in your hiring, and how it significantly improves the success rate of new hires
—
Brought to you by AssemblyAI—Production-ready AI models to transcribe and understand speech | Coda—Meet the evolution of docs | Wix Studio—The web creation platform built for agencies
—
Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/unpacking-amazons-unique-ways-of-working-bill-carr-author-of-working-backwards/
—
Where to find Bill Carr:
• X: https://twitter.com/BillCarr89
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-carr/
• Website: https://www.workingbackwards.com/
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Bill’s background
(04:26) Amazon’s workplace evolution
(09:54) Amazon’s “fitness function”
(11:44) Single-threaded leadership
(18:07) Implementing a program orientation with single-threaded leadership
(20:16) The GM model vs. single-threaded leadership
(21:31) Functional countermeasures needed for single-threaded leadership
(25:22) Embracing the “disagree and commit” principle
(30:22) Understanding disagreements
(32:41) Deciphering Amazon’s “Leaders are right, a lot” principle
(35:25) An explanation of the working backwards framework
(41:16) PR FAQ process: Amazon’s innovation engine
(44:47) Deconstructing the PR FAQ structure
(43:49) The concentric circle model for sharing PR FAQs
(44:55) The customer problem-solution statement
(47:52) Create a product funnel, not a product tunnel
(51:19) How Amazon promotes action vs. talk
(54:35) Amazon’s flywheel and input metrics
(1:00:51) Signs you’ve got a good input metric
(1:04:23) How mistakes can still be made with working backwards
(1:06:54) Why disagreements aren’t necessarily signs products will fail
(1:08:02) Examples of failed Amazon projects
(1:09:55) Cultivating risk-taking and accepting failure
(1:13:57) Amazon’s “bar-raiser” practice for hiring
(1:18:21) Selecting Amazon’s bar raisers
(1:20:41) Advice on implementing practices from Working Backwards
(1:23:10) Bill’s work as an advisor
(1:26:05) Lightning round
—
Referenced:
• Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595
• Jeff Bezos on X: https://twitter.com/jeffbezos
• D.E. Shaw: https://www.deshaw.com/
• Eric Ries’s website: https://theleanstartup.com/
• GM business model: https://fourweekmba.com/general-motors-business-model/
• Rick Dalzell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richarddalzell/
• The Effective Decision by Peter F. Drucker: https://hbr.org/1967/01/the-effective-decision
• Template: Working Backwards PR FAQ: https://www.workingbackwards.com/resources/working-backwards-pr-faq
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0066620996
• The Amazon flywheel: https://feedvisor.com/resources/amazon-trends/amazon-flywheel-explained/
• Sixsigma: https://www.6sigma.us/
• Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries: https://www.amazon.com/Loonshots-Nurture-Diseases-Transform-Industries/dp/1250185963
• Andy Jassy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-jassy-8b1615/
• Implementing Amazon’s Bar Raiser Process in Hiring: A Quick Guide: https://www.barraiser.com/blogs/implementing-amazons-bar-raiser-process-in-hiring
• Microspeak: The As-Appropriate (AA) interviewer: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20231017-00/?p=108897
• The Practice of Management: https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Management-Peter-F-Drucker/dp/0060878975
• The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done: https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Executive-Definitive-Harperbusiness-Essentials/dp/0060833459
• Steve Jobs: https://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648537
• Seveneves: https://www.amazon.com/Seveneves-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0062334514
• A Gentleman in Moscow: https://www.amazon.com/A-Gentleman-in-Moscow/dp/0143110438
• Dune on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Dune-Timoth%C3%A9e-Chalamet/dp/B09LJXY4PH
• A Spy Among Friends: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15565872/
• Zipp 303 Firecrest tubeless disc brake: https://www.sram.com/en/zipp/models/wh-303-ftld-a1
• The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization: https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Discipline-Practice-Learning-Organization/dp/0385517254
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
As the first results from the English local elections come in, Rachel Wearmouth, Freddie Hayward and Ben Walker look at what they mean for the main parties. They talk about where the Conservatives are losing, and where Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens are succeeding.
Subscribe to Morning Call
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In a way, Shan-Lyn Ma started attending business school when she was 11 years old and hasn't stopped since. She was hooked on entrepreneurship after winning her first business competition in grade school; and a few years later, she began accumulating lessons from the successes and failures she observed while working at Yahoo and other young companies. In 2013, she and a former colleague applied many of those lessons to their own startup: an online registry designed to make wedding planning easier and more personal. Still, Shan had a lot more to learn—starting with how to convince dubious investors that the world needed another wedding registry. Today, despite the gut-punch of COVID, Zola has grown into a robust wedding-planning platform, valued at $600 million in 2018.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Get started with Osome here: https://osome.com/uk/referral/onemonthfree/?ref=jamessinclair29&aff_name=James&coupon=
Welcome to the Business Broadcast Podcast! Each week James brings on the show an entrepreneur who shares their biggest challenges and struggles in business.
James coaches the business owner through these challenges by asking those hard hitting questions in order to get to the bottom of these problems and help the business owner soar to success.
Start your 14 Day FREE Trial for the Entrepreneurs University at: https://jamessinclair.net/
In this episode of The Business Broadcast James speaks with Taimur from Osome to discuss why most businesses fail. What is it about those 1% that seem to be making profit and growing like no one else? How can we grow our business and avoid failure.
Stay up to date
For any inquiries, please email us at hello@podcastworld.io