Introduction

“We have an unshakeable conviction that the long-term interests of shareowners are perfectly aligned with the interests of customers.”2 (Location 37)

In a talk at the 2018 Air, Space and Cyber Conference, Jeff described Amazon this way: “Our culture is four things: customer obsession instead of competitor obsession; willingness to think long term, with a longer investment horizon than most of our peers; eagerness to invent, which of course goes hand in hand with failure; and then, finally, taking professional pride in operational excellence.” (Location 40)

Building Blocks: Leadership Principles and Mechanisms

亚马逊的公司文化就是 14 条领导力原则（Leadership Principles），这 14 条原则由高管团队话费数月时间不断打磨而成，并贯穿在公司的日常工作流程中。

亚马逊通过一系列的内部机制（mechanisms）来保证领导力原则得到贯彻：

1. 年度规划流程：每年夏天开始，分为 OP1 和 OP2；OP1 花费比较长的时间，自上而下，然后在自下而上，设定公司下一年度的目标；OP2 一般在年末，根据 4 季度的实际情况进行一些初步调整；全年目标一般是在第三季度结束的时候，就大概知道能否完成了。
2. S-team 目标设定：从各个团队提交上来的目标中，S-team 挑选其中的一部分，作为公司最高优先级的目标，资源分配上具有优先级。
3. 薪酬激励计划：和公司全局目标对齐，公司目标和股东目标与 Customer Obsession 对齐；更侧重用股权激励的手段进行长期目标的激励。

These include:

• the Bar Raiser hiring process that ensures that the company continues to acquire top talent;
• a bias for separable teams run by leaders with a singular focus that optimizes for speed of delivery and innovation;
• the use of written narratives instead of slide decks to ensure that deep understanding of complex issues drives well-informed decisions;
• a relentless focus on input metrics to ensure that teams work on activities that propel the business.
• And finally there is the product development process that gives this book its name: working backwards from the desired customer experience. (Location 53)

The job description he wrote for his very first employee said, “You must have experience designing and building large and complex (yet maintainable) systems, and you should be able to do so in about one-third the time that most competent people think possible.” (Location 249)