Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The Amazon Management System: The Ultimate Digital Business Engine That Creates Extraordinary Value for Both Customers and Shareholders

Rate this book
Amazon’s trillion-dollar success is the envy of everyone, but achievable by anyone. What has propelled their record streak of growth? Their management system, and it can do the same for you no matter what business you are in or what level. Learning it is as simple as six building blocks distilled by New York Times bestselling author and global CEO advisor Ram Charan and Julia Yang in The Amazon Management System.

 

The Ultimate Digital Engine that Powered Amazon’s Unprecedented Growth and Shareholder Value Block 1: Customer-Obsessed Business Model Building Block 2: Continuous Bar-Raising Talent Pool Building Block 3: AI-Powered Data & Metrics System Building Block 4: Ground-Breaking Invention Machine Building Block 5: High-Velocity & High-Quality Decision-Making Building Block 6: A forever Day 1 culture. From their high-velocity decision-making to their top talent hiring practices, the insider secrets behind Amazon’s success are now within anyone’s grasp, block by block. Whether you are an established CEO or a recent college grad, this concise and actionable book will help your business win in a new digital era that demands nonstop innovation.

143 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 10, 2019

274 people are currently reading
754 people want to read

About the author

Ram Charan

149 books214 followers
Ram Charan is an Indian-American business consultant, speaker, and writer resident in Dallas, Texas.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
136 (34%)
4 stars
160 (40%)
3 stars
77 (19%)
2 stars
17 (4%)
1 star
3 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
Profile Image for Sudhagar.
326 reviews2 followers
April 10, 2021
Disappointing and poorly written. I have a lot of respect for Ram Charan based on his previous work but this book clearly very poorly written. Anyone who writes a book on a topic is expected to have an in-depth knowledge, either via first-hand experience or by doing a lot of research. Clearly in this case it was neither. The authors seems to know Amazon based on some interviews with people who had dealt or worked for Amazon in the past or based on some earlier articles written by others. The content itself is shallow and says very little about Amazon system. You are better off doing an internet search than reading this book. In my opinion, the book "The Everything Store" by Brad Smith provides much better insight into Amazon than this book. I have had dealings with Amazon professionally and these experience don't even remotely resembled what the authors have described.
Profile Image for Srikar.
135 reviews65 followers
January 30, 2022
Ram Charan talks about how Amazon keeps innovating and growing through its guiding principles and customer obsession. It is written for business leaders but anyone can take a few lessons.
Profile Image for Imran  Ahmed.
125 reviews32 followers
August 22, 2021
The authors have distilled the basic management principles of Amazon and Bezos well in this concise work. A good introduction to the company, especially for those with limited knowledge of Amazon's management.

This is not a book about Amazon. It is a work on management principles b

To be sure, at times it seems too endearing towards Amazon and Bezos but nonetheless a worthwhile read.
Profile Image for Phuong Anh Ha.
16 reviews7 followers
November 30, 2020
Đúng như tên gọi, quyển sách đã bật mí những bí mật đằng sau hệ thống quản trị của Amazon. Chỉ tính riêng amazon.com thì mình đã thấy đó là cả 1 hệ thống đồ sộ về bán hàng, inventory, fulfillment,… rồi. Nhưng không chỉ mỗi thế, mà Amazon còn có vô vàn dịch vụ khác như Amz Web Service, Echo, Alexa,… và sản phẩm phần cứng như Kindle… Vậy làm thế nào để Amazon quản trị và grow một loạt sản phẩm khủng như vậy?

Có 3 khía cạnh chính mà mình thấy cực kì hay sau khi đọc sách:

1. Tập trung vào khách hàng. Nếu bạn xây business dựa trên đối thủ, thì bạn luôn phải đợi có “đối thủ” hoặc đợi đối thủ làm gì đó thì mình mới làm theo hoặc cải tiến được. Nhưng khi tập trung vào khách hàng, vào nhu cầu của khách hàng thì room để sáng tạo và chủ động tăng lên rất nhiều.
2. Tập trung vào talent. Nhân sự chính là yếu tố cốt lõi của doanh nghiệp. Amz quan niệm là với mỗi nhân sự tuyển mới, thì nhân sự này phải nâng được tiêu chuẩn chất lượng của cty lên, thì toàn bộ hệ thống nhân sự mới luôn đi lên được. Amz có hẳn 1 người gọi là “raising bar QC” để phỏng vấn lần cuối, và người này phải đảm bảo là mỗi nhân sự được tuyển phải có standard cực cao, đáp ứng chuẩn Amz. Rất nhiều công ty, hoặc ngay cả chính bản thân mình cũng bị gặp trường hợp là do yêu cầu tuyển gấp, do vị trí đó cần ngay nên đôi khi chấp nhận đánh đổi tiêu chuẩn. Nhưng với Amz thì không, Amz ko đánh đổi long-term lấy những benefit short-term.
3. Tập trung vào AI và hệ thống data. Có thể mọi người thấy bên mình đã làm rất kĩ về data, OKR hàng tháng cũng có hàng chục metrics cần track và monitor. Nhưng với Amz thì OKR là hàng trăm metrics cho 1 bộ phận. Và mỗi người phụ trách objective thì có đầy đủ access vào data, một cách real time để ra quyết định. Đọc list metrics mà Amz track cho từng mảng bạn sẽ thấy là họ làm cực-kì-kĩ, từ đó làm mình thấy chúng ta cần phải cố gắng hơn rất rất nhiều, và cần làm kĩ hơn rất rất rất nhiều.

Một câu chuyện mình nhớ trong quyển sách đó là, trong 1 buổi họp lãnh đạo cấp cao, Jeff Bezos có hỏi nhân sự phụ trách customer support là “Thời gian trung bình mà khách hàng phải đợi khi gọi điện cho Amz là bao nhiêu lâu?”. Nhân sự đó trả lời ngay là “Chưa tới 1 phút”. Ngay lập tức, Jeff rút điện thoại ra gọi cho số support của Amz trong sự chờ đợi của tất cả các nhân sự cấp cao khác. Thời gian chờ là hơn 3 phút.

Vậy tại sao Jeff lại quyết định làm 1 phép thử trong sự chờ đợi của tất cả các nhân sự cấp cao cho 1 metric nhỏ như vậy? Xin mời các bạn đọc sách để có câu trả lời =)))))

Đùa chứ cái này cũng khá meaningful nên mình trả lời 1 phần luôn - Khi khách hàng đã phải contact customer support tức là họ đã có 1 issue gì đó rồi, chứ ko ai tự nhiên rảnh ra lại contact CS để nói chuyện phiếm cả. Nên việc để khách hàng chờ lâu là 1 điểm chạm cực kì ko tốt. Ngoài ra còn những lí do khác liên quan đến quản trị data, hệ thống, nhân sự nữa. Mời mọi người đọc sách để biết thêm chi tiết nhé :))))
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
3 reviews1 follower
October 25, 2020
Outstanding book on Amazon

Great book on how amazon is successful in the digital age.the book describes how the company leadership principle a nd building blocks are all related and are in line with the company mission statement. Fascinating read
Profile Image for Andrés Watanabe.
114 reviews1 follower
March 23, 2021
Es un libro corto que te narra muy bien la forma en que funciona Amazon.

El problema está que por partes sentí que el autor daba vueltas en lo mismo con el objetivo de extender el libro. Pienso que pudo ahorrarse varias página si fuera más directo al grano y diera menos vueltas.

Antes de leer el libro, tal vez sea bueno que tengas conocimiento de Metodologías Ágiles porque las mencionan varias veces de forma indirecta, tal vez esta información pueda agarrar de sorpresa a cualquier nuevo en el tema.
4 reviews
January 24, 2020
This book provides a comprehensive overview of Amazon’s legendary approach to management and leadership, presented in a way to maximize utility for managers and leaders who want to take pieces of Amazon’s management framework and apply them in their organizations. The book contains dozens of first-hand accounts from Amazonians and anecdotes about Bezos’s obsessions with operational excellence and putting customers first.
Profile Image for Cheryl.
378 reviews
March 20, 2021
We were each asked at work to read this book as part of a team assignment.

The book highlights Amazon’s management approach and how it aligns to their business objectives. The relentless support for the customer impressed me the most with the empty chair representing the customer in the room for all business discussions.

Solid read and interesting learnings and insights on a digital business leader and company.
1 review
October 10, 2021
Esperava muito mais que um livro superficial, cheio de apologias a Bezos e que trata a Amazon como um empresa perfeita.
O livro circula em temas como métricas, cultura, centralidade do cliente, tomadas de decisões rápidas, temas que ja vem sendo falados e século. Mais do que isso, não aprofunda em operacionalização e como construir estas coisas.
Quer ler um livro com do RAM CHARAN, leia pipeline de liderança.
37 reviews1 follower
July 11, 2020
A precise and concise view of the underlying system that is helping Amazon disrupt and become a leader in almost every industry it enters. Considering this comes from Ram Charan, a management guru with more than 35 years of management consulting and coaching experience, that's not a surprise. Highly recommended.
Profile Image for Alexander L. Belikoff.
66 reviews3 followers
April 27, 2021
Breathless at times yet informative account of what makes Amazon tick. Same examples, as meaningful as they are, are repeated throughout the book - without this duplication, it could be half the size yet just as informative. Still, it's a nice, not too lengthy overview of the practices you can't argue with. Highly recommended.
1 review
April 18, 2022
What I liked:
- Well structured summary of Amazon’s strategy and some of the actual management approaches

What I didn’t like:
- Very one-sided approach. While praising the company’s and/or Bezos’s “challenge” approach, this book is extremely one-sided, and doesn’t criticize anything in Amazon’s approach.
25 reviews1 follower
March 15, 2020
I wanted to understand amazon, the authors have only written about jeff

Was expecting a lot more from this book instead it talks only about jeff and how he does this that etc
Very expensive to not learn anything new
Profile Image for Vikrama Dhiman.
159 reviews105 followers
May 8, 2020
I picked this book looking at the author name Ram Charan. However, this looks like a PR book or obviously trying to sell a way of working - not something associated with the author. I loved the Data and AI chapter but knew the rest. Perhaps, not the target audience.
145 reviews
May 3, 2021
Pretty accurate representation of Amazon's principles and how they are key to its explosive growth.
I wish they used more examples to illustrate the value of those principles; it feels a bit cherry-picked as it stands.


Really slim succinct book, finished in 1.5 hours.
1 review1 follower
June 19, 2021
Simple, fast and easy to digest

Was a quick read, easy to digest and follow. the author could have gone deeper in some of the principles. But would still recommend it to anyone who wants to get insights into one of the leading modern age companies
Profile Image for Alex Brodt.
12 reviews
July 2, 2021
Livro interessante, da alguns insights, porém, parece mais do mesmo. Bastante superficial e a maioria do conteúdo é algo que todos que conhecem a Amazon já imaginam.
A impressão que fico é que o autor fez muito rodeios para preencher mais páginas, poderia ter sido mais breve e objetivo.
9 reviews
February 5, 2022
A must read for any curious leader

As one reads through this book, one cannot help but be amazed at the leadership principles practiced at Amazon, rigor mortis. A must read for any leader who truly believes in thinking big and out of the box.
Profile Image for Angelo nicolosi.
14 reviews
August 9, 2025
1. Customer obsessed business model
2. Continuous bar raising talent pool
3. AI powered data and metrics system
4. ground breaking invention machine
5. High velocity and high quality decision making
6. Forever day 1 culture
Profile Image for João Cortez.
171 reviews22 followers
October 19, 2020
Great short book about the business management principles of Jeff Bezos and Amazon, which are essential business practices for the twenty first century companies.
Profile Image for Quan Truong.
70 reviews18 followers
November 7, 2020
Helpful short read to understand more about Amazon strategy and company machine.
Profile Image for Bruno Gurgel.
87 reviews
January 3, 2021
Fantastic way to start 2021!!! This book help me to understand better many of the tools and methods used by Amazon to run its machine. Highly recommend!!!
Profile Image for Melanna.
774 reviews
March 13, 2021
I’m not the target audience for this book. It was interesting. But not much I could ever apply to anything in my life.
Profile Image for Shreyas.
31 reviews1 follower
April 22, 2021
Really good, understood why Amazon is so good at what it does.
Profile Image for Juan Serenellini.
100 reviews4 followers
March 3, 2022
Bueno, claro, breve. Te hace sentir que lo que aprendiste en la escuela de negocios ya no sirve (si es que alguna vez sirvió para algo).
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.