Here are the current Amazon Leadership Principles:
•Customer Obsession
•Ownership
•Invent and Simplify
•Are Right, A Lot
•Learn and Be Curious
•Hire and Develop the Best
•Insist of the Highest Standards
•Think Big
•Bias for Action
•Frugality
•Earn Trust
•Dive Deep
•Have Background, Disagree and Commit
•Deliver Results
•Strive to Be Earth’s Best Employer
•Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility
If I was a principal level employee at Amazon, here are two things in the Amazon Leadership Principles list that I definitely must come to modify them or even kick them out if possible.
Customer Obsession
“Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.”
I totally understand why this statement established. However, this sound like we must treat all customers like a king, and employees must do anything to please them. As a person who used to be a waiter at a restaurant and having customer service experience, I really disagree with this statement. While satisfying customer need, we also need to take care more employees. Customer expectations are always too high, and some are unrealistic. A high school student worked in a small restaurant get paid 12$/ hour, and the restaurant foods are cheap too, but some people expect him to serve them like a professional waiter, also the food in the small restaurant much be as tasty as the 5-star fancy restaurant, so what you all think? That’s ridiculous to me. That’s why I said the customer expectations are sometime unrealistic and beyond our ability. So, the leader should try to filter out what customer expectations we should listen to and what not. Meet the customer need but still maintain the employee benefit, health care, that kind of stuffs. Building a friendly environmental between customer and employee, the leader must treat your employee as good as the way you treat your customer. I would change “Customer Obsession” to “Meet the Realistic Customer expectation.”
Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer
“Leaders work every day to create a safer, more productive, higher performing, more diverse, and more just work environment. They lead with empathy, have fun at work, and make it easy for others to have fun. Leaders ask themselves: Are my fellow employees growing? Are they empowered? Are they ready for what’s next? Leaders have a vision for and commitment to their employees’ personal success, whether that be at Amazon or elsewhere.”
This is one of the most exaggeration statements that I found on the list. Instead of saying “Strive to be Earth’s best Employer” maybe “Strive to be World’s Best Employer”? that sound make more sense to me. Also, instead of just doing thing for money, the company should listen and take care more their employees.
