Learning to Drive a Bezos Bulldozer Knock Off
December 25, 2019
“Two-Pizza Teams and More: Former Amazon Employees Bake Bezos Principles into Their Startups” makes clear that certain management methods may be transportable. Like Facebook’s precept “Move fast. Break things”, the Bezos bulldozer driver learns to “never say that’s not my job.” Other important ideas are having a catchy metaphor for one’s business foundation; for example, a flywheel. The idea is that once a big heavy electrical motor begins spinning, it takes quite a bit of effort to slow it down. Then there’s momentum, an idea which explains why one does not stop a bulldozer with a couple of people pushing on the business end of the machine.
The write up notes that Amazon has since 1997 encouraged employees to “have backbone; disagree and commit,” for example, and “insist on the highest standards.”
Another big idea is to keep teams small. If it takes more than two pizzas to feed a team, the team is too big.
Several “discoveries” sparked by the write up are:
- The Seattle Times’ Web site is unusable because ad blockers are not permitted and certain versions of Internet Explorer cannot render the story’s pages. Maybe hiring one of those no-longer-at-Amazon developers is a good idea?
- The focus on people seems to be a good idea except when those people want to unionize or to implement certain training procedures for some Amazon delivery professionals.
- The highest standards sounds good but apparently permitting merchants to sell certain types of products is okay.
To sum up, looking at companies which are operating in ways which would have had 19th century regulatory authorities working overtime provides a new type of management blueprint. Methods which a “bar raisers” are likely to create some interesting business consequences.
Efficiency can be a positive. But there are downsides, and business schools, management consultants, and baby Amazons will rush to explain these glitches away.
Sounds good, almost utopian. One company may be more efficient than multiple companies. Plus that pizza may be delivered by an Amazon operating unit.
Stephen E Arnold, December 25, 2019
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
