Jeff Bezos FY2017 Letter to Shareholders

Building a culture of high standards is well worth the effort, and there are many benefits. Naturally and most obviously, you’re going to build better products and services for customers – this would be reason enough! Perhaps a little less obvious: people are drawn to high standards – they help with…

— Jeff Bezos, phx.corporate-ir.net

bezos Business Standards Operations

We don’t do PowerPoint (or any other slide-oriented) presentations at Amazon. Instead, we write narratively structured six-page memos. We silently read one at the beginning of each meeting in a kind of “study hall.”

— Jeff Bezos, phx.corporate-ir.net

bezos Business Standards Operations

“Most people,” he said, “think that if they work hard, they should be able to master a handstand in about two weeks. The reality is that it takes about six months of daily practice. If you think you should be able to do it in two weeks, you’re just going to end up quitting.” Unrealistic beliefs on s…

— Jeff Bezos, phx.corporate-ir.net

bezos Business Standards Operations

What do you need to achieve high standards in a particular domain area? First, you have to be able to recognize what good looks like in that domain. Second, you must have realistic expectations for how hard it should be (how much work it will take) to achieve that result – the scope.

— Jeff Bezos, phx.corporate-ir.net

bezos Business Standards Operations

Another important question is whether high standards are universal or domain specific. In other words, if you have high standards in one area, do you automatically have high standards elsewhere? I believe high standards are domain specific, and that you have to learn high standards separately in eve…

— Jeff Bezos, phx.corporate-ir.net

bezos Business Standards Operations

[H]igh standards are teachable. In fact, people are pretty good at learning high standards simply through exposure. High standards are contagious. Bring a new person onto a high standards team, and they’ll quickly adapt. The opposite is also true. If low standards prevail, those too will quickly spr…

— Jeff Bezos, phx.corporate-ir.net

bezos Business Standards Operations

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