‘Best in Class’ ?
Amazon, and by default its founder Jeff Bezos, have become so omnipresent in our lives it is hard to remember life before the company was born and the fundamental difference it is has made.
Some of you reading this will be old enough to remember how the Sunday supplements of the early 1980s became the domain for the mail order company Scotcade. On a seemingly weekly basis, the company beseeched us to buy anything from saucepans, radio alarm clocks, silk shirts for men and tartan skirts for women.
Bob Scott, who founded this company, was arguably an early version of what Jeff Bezos and Amazon were later to become. The fundamental difference was the time everything took. If enticed by the allure of the latest radio alarm clock, you simply filled out the coupon with your cheque or details of your credit card and then waited.
And waited. For up to 28 days. And when the radio alarm clock arrived and you as the customer were not satisfied, then there was another 30 days to send it back. Which meant in reality, Scotcade had your money for the best part of two months for something you may not be happy with.
This was the industry norm. So no one really questioned it.
So when Amazon arrived on the scene, it started a revolution. Helped of course by the arrival of on-line shopping, Jeff Bezos understood, probably better than anybody else the importance of speed of delivery.
So 28 days became a few days. Which later became ‘next day’ and for some already is ‘same day’. Amazon also in those early days understood the power of constant communication. I remember being shocked to receive an email telling me that an order I had placed was to arrive earlier than expected. Another complete revelation was money left your account when goods were dispatched not when ordered.
Both ‘innovations’ hastened the demise of many a mail order company, including Scotcade.
The first mention of Amazon and Jeff Bezos in the Financial Times was in 1996. To give some context that was the year of the Atlanta Olympic Games when another speed merchant, runner Michael Johnson was at his most sublime. The radical idea Amazon was about to introduce was to allow customers to leave reviews and ways to suggest new books to read.
This was at a time when ‘customer feedback’ was largely still done by letter or occasionally a phone call and deeply discouraged by almost all companies as the only feedback they ever received on their products or swas negative, so why on earth encourage it?
The last week, has of course seen the media, including the Financial Times awash with articles, trying to assess the legacy of Jeff Bezos now that he steps down from his current role. To quote the FT:
”In the years to come, what will be said about Jeff Bezos as an innovator? While Henry Ford had his Model T, and Steve Jobs his iPhone, the precise achievements of the Amazon founder are harder to define. Perhaps.....his lasting legacy will be re-engineering the business of innovation itself“
?By using the prism of the six ‘Best in Class’ company behaviours which I write about in my book, The Business Case for Love, Jeff Bezos and Amazon certainly score highly on five out of the six. (‘image and experience match’, ‘constantly inside the heads of the customer’, ‘brave yet disciplined’, ‘constantly innovating’, ‘creating memorable customer experiences’).
The one I am not so sure about is the last one ‘Personal values and company values align’ which for me is all about company culture with employees having a strong overlap in what they believe in and what the company believes in.
The main reason is that I have never met anyone who has worked for Amazon. And unlike some other hugely innovative and successful people, I have no idea of what Jeff Bezos is really like or how it feels to work for the company.
Staggeringly, Amazon took on 1,400 people a day last year and now has a workforce of 1.3 million worldwide with 10,000 new hires in the UK taking the total to 40,000.
Given that the vast majority of employees want to work for a company they feel proud of and one with a clear sense of purpose, ethics, beliefs and values, perhaps this is the biggest challenge facing incoming CEO, Andy Jassy. Making sure that there is unifying and authentic company culture which binds its million plus employees together so that they continue to behave as a ‘best in class’ company.
Without a doubt, Amazon delivers on the mindset of creating a memorable customer experience yet for it to be truly sustainable, post-Bezos, it will need to have the mindset of creating a memorable employee experience as well.
For those who are interested, my book #thebusinesscaseforlove is now available both as an e-book and a hardback. In it I write about ’best in class’ company and leadership behaviours which I believe are relevant to the challenges of today.
It can be downloaded via #amazon #PalgraveMacmillan and #SpringerNature
?A sample is available on Amazon and a sample of each chapter is available through Palgrave and Springer.
The hardback is now available through Amazon, Palgrave Macmillan Springer Nature and now The Bookshop, supporting local bookstores.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Business-Case-Love-Companies-Bragged/dp/3030364259
https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030364250
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-36426-7