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The Amazon Way on IoT: 10 Principles for Every Leader from the World's Leading Internet of Things Strategies
The Amazon Way on IoT is for the leader who wants to understand how the internet of things is transforming business and society. Readers will discover business cases, key concepts, technologies and tools to help develop, explain and execute their own IoT approach through understanding Amazon’s and other leading companies sophisticated IoT technologies and strategies.
Connected devices, wearables, cloud computing, sensors, machine learning and algorithms are all capabilities and technologies dramatically changing business, government and organizational landscapes. These are the core components enabling the internet of things, which Harvard professor Michael Porter writes is the backbone for a third wave of technology-led innovation and digital disruption. This book gives you the easy recipes to identify the opportunities in your business.
Connected devices, wearables, cloud computing, sensors, machine learning and algorithms are all capabilities and technologies dramatically changing business, government and organizational landscapes. These are the core components enabling the internet of things, which Harvard professor Michael Porter writes is the backbone for a third wave of technology-led innovation and digital disruption. This book gives you the easy recipes to identify the opportunities in your business.
6 pages, Audio CD
Published February 7, 2017
191 people are currently reading
321 people want to read
About the author
John Rossman
22 books46 followersJohn Rossman is a former Amazon executive, author of several books and a leading business and leadership advisor. His just released third edition of the business classic The Amazon Way which is his story opening up the Amazon Leadership Principles as only an insider could do. Mr. Rossman is an expert at crafting and implementing innovative and digital business models and capabilities, including the internet of things. He is a sought-after speaker on creating a culture of operational excellence and innovation. Prior to Rossman Partners, John was an executive at Amazon.com where he launched the marketplace business, and ran the enterprise services business. He can be reached at info@rossmanpartners.com
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 12, 2019
Somewhat disappointing, but with some interesting insights. First, the book is purely at the strategy level of IoT. Absolutely nothing about the cost-benefit of the devices, the motivations for the design of their morphology, which communication spectrum to use etc. Although that's probably unrealistic to expect from a book like this, the author should have included a bit of it as pure strategy documents are 9/10 totally useless.
That being said, this book has some interesting, insights into Amazon (much of which can also be gotten from the 10-k and/or Wikipedia for the company). The text is organized around "10 principles" for your IoT strategy. The first and foremost principle is equivalent to Amazon's leadership principle of customer obsession.
The usefulness of this idea is demonstrated by the countless Amazon innovations (features) driven by customer obsession, and the fact that Amazon maintained their integrity to these principles during implementation, despite the initial scepticism voiced by the "market"/street, including free shipping for customers orders above $25, 1-click shopping, the ability to look into the book, customer reviews etc. Without a set of leading principles, Amazon may not have "stayed the course" on some of these, and they would have lost on the dividends.
With respect to IoT, it's mostly related to selling the devices at close-to-cost as possible, since the real revenue stream comes from all the activity captured by the platform. A fairly mundane insight that either could have been gotten from a little thinking or college level microeconomics. The other principles all describe various properties that your service ought to have, including seamless omnichannel integration, continuous improvement, thinking big/starting small, data is the business model etc.
The most interesting tidbit i got from the book was a few SOPs that Amazon implements to progress their projects, including an explicit phase to define not only success criterions but required executive approval of proposed models of success (mathematical/algorithmic) that can be independently tracked by a third party auditing agent. This is definitely rigour appropriately deployed at the organizational level, but not for the reasons given in the book. Instead, this approved model should help minimize political in-fighting with respect to tracking the progress of the project, or individual teammates politicking for personal gains.
A closely related insight about Amazon's operations was also that it utilized the system dynamics modelling methodology to model device/business/customer pipe/data/capital interactions. Being a practitioner myself I'm kicking myself having not leveraged this fact earlier. Although, it's still good to know for the future.
Overall, most of the book was common sense, with a few nuggets of insights into Amazon. Good intro to the business of IoT, seasoned practitioners, industry seniors will get a few new thoughts from the book. Conditional recommend for newbs or if you can get it cheap on sale.
That being said, this book has some interesting, insights into Amazon (much of which can also be gotten from the 10-k and/or Wikipedia for the company). The text is organized around "10 principles" for your IoT strategy. The first and foremost principle is equivalent to Amazon's leadership principle of customer obsession.
The usefulness of this idea is demonstrated by the countless Amazon innovations (features) driven by customer obsession, and the fact that Amazon maintained their integrity to these principles during implementation, despite the initial scepticism voiced by the "market"/street, including free shipping for customers orders above $25, 1-click shopping, the ability to look into the book, customer reviews etc. Without a set of leading principles, Amazon may not have "stayed the course" on some of these, and they would have lost on the dividends.
With respect to IoT, it's mostly related to selling the devices at close-to-cost as possible, since the real revenue stream comes from all the activity captured by the platform. A fairly mundane insight that either could have been gotten from a little thinking or college level microeconomics. The other principles all describe various properties that your service ought to have, including seamless omnichannel integration, continuous improvement, thinking big/starting small, data is the business model etc.
The most interesting tidbit i got from the book was a few SOPs that Amazon implements to progress their projects, including an explicit phase to define not only success criterions but required executive approval of proposed models of success (mathematical/algorithmic) that can be independently tracked by a third party auditing agent. This is definitely rigour appropriately deployed at the organizational level, but not for the reasons given in the book. Instead, this approved model should help minimize political in-fighting with respect to tracking the progress of the project, or individual teammates politicking for personal gains.
A closely related insight about Amazon's operations was also that it utilized the system dynamics modelling methodology to model device/business/customer pipe/data/capital interactions. Being a practitioner myself I'm kicking myself having not leveraged this fact earlier. Although, it's still good to know for the future.
Overall, most of the book was common sense, with a few nuggets of insights into Amazon. Good intro to the business of IoT, seasoned practitioners, industry seniors will get a few new thoughts from the book. Conditional recommend for newbs or if you can get it cheap on sale.
November 12, 2017
I think Rossman does a great job describing Amazon's culture but does a poor job on providing a playbook on IoT. Likening Kindle to an IoT solution is a bit disingenuous; Alexa - absolutely! The author points to reading his earlier book to understand Amazon's culture. I have a good enough understanding based on this text alone.
A better book on the topic is O'Reilly's Enterprise IoT. I also have Sinclair's IOT Inc but haven't cracked it open yet.
A better book on the topic is O'Reilly's Enterprise IoT. I also have Sinclair's IOT Inc but haven't cracked it open yet.
February 28, 2018
How to think about digital disruption
This is a very good introduction to how to think about digital disruption (not just IOT) by focusing on the business problems to be solved and how to accelerate your business using IOT. Lots of insights here, but no silver bullets...it requires discipline and lots of hard work.
This is a very good introduction to how to think about digital disruption (not just IOT) by focusing on the business problems to be solved and how to accelerate your business using IOT. Lots of insights here, but no silver bullets...it requires discipline and lots of hard work.
March 28, 2018
I listened to the audio book. I loved the idea of developing formulas for business processes. Customer obsession and avoiding short term gains for long term ones, was especially good. The concept of failing forward as a culture. All good stuff. The only reason I take a point away is cause author was a bit repetitive.
July 15, 2020
Not applicable to all products but it creates a skeleton that you can follow with a proposed IoT product. In addition, you are provided a large number of questions to ask yourself that causes you to reflect on the product and produce a more complete vision of your desired result and how useful it should be. Definitely worth reading because it provokes thoughtful introspection.
October 28, 2020
The title is a bit misleading. Not a deep discussion of Amazon's IoT projects and philosophy, but a bunch (10) of general principles, more related to general digital transformation that IoT in particular, in which the author fits some Amazon-related examples in. To me, it felt like two stars. I would give three stars because I think it might be valuable for newbies.
December 7, 2019
this book is recommended for business readers
it is not diving deep in IoT world but it is showing another perspective in harnessing the IoT in business and general projects with an awesome referencing to Amazon's experience
it is not diving deep in IoT world but it is showing another perspective in harnessing the IoT in business and general projects with an awesome referencing to Amazon's experience
February 22, 2020
More interesting than I had expected. Quite informative on topics I had known little about. A lot of crossover with Rossman’s first book, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing as key principles are reinforced.
October 5, 2017
1) project charter instead of gantt chart
2) future press release
2) future press release
March 13, 2019
Pretty good: the application of Amazon principles into a new business. Definitely worth reading!
Read
June 10, 2019Wartościowa pozycja
ABARO - M2M i Internet rzeczy
ABARO - M2M i Internet rzeczy
December 29, 2019
Half of the book is not about IoT at all.
December 26, 2018
Great book by someone who has worked at Amazon on many of these IoT initiatives - concise and captures the essentials of Amazon's IoT strategy. A bit of validation to oldies who have been doing process excellence or other customer-focused product development for a while, and quite a revelation to those who are just discovering the extent of Amazon's customer obsession, analytics excellence and dominance in various industries.
September 30, 2021
Diving into the world behind what has helped make Amazon the massive company it has become was interesting. They pushed the package, got out of the box, and innovated ways to leverage emerging technology.
Throughout the book it was fascinating to see how they adapted and changed the way internal processes worked to improve customer experience and expand the way their services can reach customers. Such information is insightful for anyone seeking inspiration on the subject.
However, I found the book to be more of a "look what we did" narrative, rather than a guide for transitioning a company to take advantage of the Internet of Things (IoT). If you just read through it you will probably come away thinking, "wow, I see why Amazon has gone so far." It takes more introspection and musings on what is described coupled with one's own company or work to arrive at any significant path forward to integrate IoT in your own space.
That being said, those willing to put in the extra connecting considerations could find the breakthrough idea that may elevate your company or work to the next level and launch it into the digital age of IoT. Don't expect to find those idea in the text of the book. The book is like a map with islands of information. It is your responsibility to fill in the rest of the map and figure out where to go.
Throughout the book it was fascinating to see how they adapted and changed the way internal processes worked to improve customer experience and expand the way their services can reach customers. Such information is insightful for anyone seeking inspiration on the subject.
However, I found the book to be more of a "look what we did" narrative, rather than a guide for transitioning a company to take advantage of the Internet of Things (IoT). If you just read through it you will probably come away thinking, "wow, I see why Amazon has gone so far." It takes more introspection and musings on what is described coupled with one's own company or work to arrive at any significant path forward to integrate IoT in your own space.
That being said, those willing to put in the extra connecting considerations could find the breakthrough idea that may elevate your company or work to the next level and launch it into the digital age of IoT. Don't expect to find those idea in the text of the book. The book is like a map with islands of information. It is your responsibility to fill in the rest of the map and figure out where to go.
Read
January 15, 2017I'm diving into IoT these days like a lot of people with new Echo devices for Christmas. Beyond that my role at work is becoming increasingly oriented toward IoT.
This book is much, much more about business than it is about technology. I haven't read the author's predecessor, "The Amazon Way," but having read this I feel like I have. Much like the fortune cookie joke of adding "...in bed" to whatever the cookie tells you, I imagine this book added "...with IoT" to every sentence in that previous book.
That doesn't mean it wasn't enjoyable or helpful. The author's reflections on Amazon and explanations of how it invests, innovates, and optimizes its business were very helpful. Reading this book you get much more of a sense of respect for efforts such as drone delivery or even the failed Fire phone. I felt a little (more) in awe of the company after reading it and admire the bold rationality of a company that seems to have an even better ability to innovate successfully than, say, Google.
I think there are probably far better books on IoT...in fact I "grokked" IoT far better listening to the book on my Echo Dot than I did from anything in the book itself. But as an up-to-date book on Amazon I found it helpful.
This book is much, much more about business than it is about technology. I haven't read the author's predecessor, "The Amazon Way," but having read this I feel like I have. Much like the fortune cookie joke of adding "...in bed" to whatever the cookie tells you, I imagine this book added "...with IoT" to every sentence in that previous book.
That doesn't mean it wasn't enjoyable or helpful. The author's reflections on Amazon and explanations of how it invests, innovates, and optimizes its business were very helpful. Reading this book you get much more of a sense of respect for efforts such as drone delivery or even the failed Fire phone. I felt a little (more) in awe of the company after reading it and admire the bold rationality of a company that seems to have an even better ability to innovate successfully than, say, Google.
I think there are probably far better books on IoT...in fact I "grokked" IoT far better listening to the book on my Echo Dot than I did from anything in the book itself. But as an up-to-date book on Amazon I found it helpful.
April 14, 2017
I am a partner in an IoT company in Cleveland, Ohio and this book has completely altered my thinking. I thought that I was customer, "obsessed" and then I read this book. The Amazon Way on IoT is a must read for all levels of knowledge on IoT. Great work!
-Peter DeCapua
-Peter DeCapua
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews