Письма Безоса 14 принципов роста бизнеса от Amazon

by Steve Anderson, Стив Андерсон

Amazon is the fastest company ever to reach $100 billion in sales, and they didn't reach that landmark by staying in their comfort zone. Risk taking is the key that unlocked the door to growth at Amazon, but those risks were (and are) intentional, calculated and strategic. Thomas Edison believed, 'I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work', and Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos, has always linked experimentation and failure with growth and success.

But 'risk taking' can be costly (even disastrous) if you don't know how to use it to your advantage. Fortunately, Bezos has provided every business owner a 'hidden in plain sight' road map for how he grew Amazon through his letter to shareholders (or as he named them, share owners) that he has written annually for the past 20 years.

For the first time, technology and risk expert Steve Anderson has analysed and distilled these letters to reveal the key 14 growth principles that unlock the lessons, mindset and steps Bezos has used to make Amazon the massive success it is today.

Now, business owners, leaders, CEOs, employees and managers can apply these same principles to grow their business to be more efficient, productive and successful - fast!

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Management, Startup, Money

312 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Oksana · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best is just to read the letters themselves w/o subjective interpretation of author and too much fluff

[Valeria Schimizzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Стив Андерсън е специалист по технологии и управление на риска. Без да познава лично Безос започва да изследва успеха му. Амазон е първата компания, която най-бързо е постигнала приходи от 100 милиарда долара. Безос пък вече няколко години оглавява класацията за най-богати хора в света. Всяка година той изпраща писма до акционерите. Според Андерсън в тях той очертава идеи и модели, които разкриват как Амазон се е превърнала в една от най-успешните компании. Авторът е отделил 14 принципа на растежа, които могат да се приложат във всеки бизнес и всяка индустрия.

Книгата ми беше много интересна. Имаше идеи, които според мен могат да са полезни както за собственици на бизнеси, така и за служители. Любопитно ми беше да науча повече за самия Безос и за неговата философия за живота и работата. Хареса ми това, че мисли иновативно и дългосрочно и че дава възможност на служителите си да експериментират, дори с риск от провал. Най-много ме впечатли концепцията за Ден 1. Тя напомня, че не трябва да се забравят ценностите, с които компанията е започнала да работи от самото начало. Защото повярваш ли си, че си успял и пренебрегнеш ли принципите си, пътят надолу е неизбежен. Както пише самият Безос: "Ден 2 е стаза. Следва безразличие. Следва мъчителен, болезнен упадък. Следва смърт. Затова винаги е Ден 1."

[Scott Wozniak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a study of Amazon, looking at their action through the lens of the annual letters that Jeff Bezos has released. The author has not worked for Amazon, so it's all public record or speculation, but there are some solid business principles in this book and some cool examples.

I took a star off (so it's 4 out of 5) because it only has positive things to say about Amazon. He's clearly a fanboy and a more nuanced approach would have been better. But still a good business read.

[Denis Vasilev · Rating 2 out of 5]

В принципе книга содержит все важные вещи, которые Безос обозначил в письмах и интервью. Но лучше почитать и просмотреть их напрямую. Рассуждения автора не привносят ничего ценного, лишнее передаточное звено

[BookTrib.com]

Last week it was announced that Amazon would be coming to New York City after the company pulled the brakes on a controversial plan to build a new Queens headquarters earlier this year.

The new plan might be worse for Amazon in the short term, with billions on the line in opportunity cost, but it’s a PR victory for the company as well as for politicians who have railed against Amazon and its billionaire CEO Jeff Bezos.

As for Bezos himself, he understands that sometimes you have to lose money to make money. Valued at almost $110 billion, Bezos has made his fortune letting billions slide here and there.

Does this seem counterproductive? Yes, but it’s one of the principles that has led to his success, outlined in Steve Anderson’s new nonfiction book The Bezos Letters: 14 Principles to Grow Your Business Like Amazon (Morgan James Publishing).

Anderson makes a few things clear up front. First of all, he’s not making any statements of support for Bezos or Amazon. He believes that regardless of what we might personally think about the company, their success is undeniable.

The rest of the review: https://booktrib.com/2019/12/the-bezo...

[Cristiano Franco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bom Livro, mas esperava mais da análise e estudos do autor. Basicamente fez uma analogia as 20 cartas de Bezos emitiu aos donos de ações da empresa. Com base nas cartas, descreveu 14 princípios em que conseguiu extrair da forma de pensar do homem mais rico do mundo atualmente. São princípios básicos do mundo digital e da nova economia. O grande ponto é que a estrutura lógica destes princípios com base em ciclo de desenvolvimento - testar, construir, escalar ... não possuem uma lógica clara para os 14 princípios. De toda forma o livro traz alguns insights interessantes para reflexão. Melhor parte é pensar sempre no Dia 1! Marca registrada das cartas de Bezos onde independente do momento do crescimento dos seus negócios e da proporção da sua empresa, sua cabeça é sempre pensar como uma startup, ou como se estivesse começando o negócio hoje, do zero! Voltando sempre para Day one!

[Yury Jefse · Rating 1 out of 5]

O autor não sustenta uma afirmação, fora que ele enrola pra chegar em um ponto, além de omitir algumas informações para reforçar suas opiniões (e chamo de opinião pq NADA que ele afirma tem base de comparação com outras empresas ou pelo menos estudos). Então quando ele afirma "... esses princípios podem ser aplicados em QUALQUER empresa" (sem contar que quase no final do livro ele fala que "os princípios podem ser aplicados para QUASE todo tipo de empresa" ), não passa de um mero "achísmo" do autor. O livro todo poderia ter sido simplificado em umas noventa páginas que ainda teria o mesmo efeito. A sensação é que o autor tinha uma meta mínima de páginas para vender o livro. O que salvou foram os trechos das cartas aos acionistas.

[Ties · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically an Amazon case study. Worth reading for a business minded person who likes stories from a leading company. It's also a quick review of amazon's rise.

At the same time, I don't like the way the author derives 14 principles from bezoss letters and then calls them the Anderson growth principles. What the hell. Why even name them anything. I liked the stories and few insights the author shares but everything that applied to him felt contrived.

So, recommended if you're able to look past a self important author.

[Douglas · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of the same business book, few principles that are everywhere: focus on the client, think bold, fail fast.. Although ideas are important, execution matter the most.

[Jack Demchy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m so glad to be on the backside of that book. I really struggled with it as it felt super subjective to the author. I still took some value from it but I think I could have gotten the same thing from reading the shareholder letters myself

[Diogo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Livro muito bom. As ideias e sugestões apresentadas são muito importantes para o desenvolvimento de qualquer negócio, e muitas são parecidas com as que são dadas no livro que conta as normas adotadas pela Netflix.

[Luis Felipe · Rating 2 out of 5]

O conteúdo é bom, mas as melhores partes são as cartas do Bezos em si. As análises do autor são mais do mesmo, sem contar que é bastante repetitivo, o que cansa a leitura.

[Helio Winter · Rating 2 out of 5]

O autor é fraco, faz auto-promoção e perde tempo escrevendo coisas bobas.
Uma forma de tornar o livro interessante é ler apenas as citações das Cartas que estão espalhadas pelo livro.
Asssim, é possível aprender um pouco sobre o pensamento de Bezos.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is clear that the Anderson Principles (named after himself) are identified as his own take on Jeff Bezos' modus operandi.

I read it alongside Amazon insiders Colin Bryar and Bill Carr's Working Backwards to see how much would overlap.

1) Anderson takes 16 chapters to illustrate business principles, plucking Bezos quotes from various letters over the years spread out in an easy but lengthened read. Bryar & Carr responds by covering the same ground and more, yet in only 6 information rich chapters.

2) Anderson adds non-Amazon narratives (Apollo 13, his experiences as a consumer etc) to public domain interviews of Jeff Bezos to illustrate a point. Bryar & Carr keeps it focused using their first hand working relationship, to share insight into Bezos' thought processes - often at genesis or decision making moments.

3) Anderson aims to help the reader reflect, with business self-help type questions at the end of each chapter. Bryar & Carr sticks to historical record, to share what went down at Amazon first hand, so there is a lot more nuance to what worked and what didn't (or evolved) but take what you will from it.


If he simply plucked quotes from the letters it would simply be republishing them into a book format, so Anderson does bring nicely into one narrative some interesting biographical anecdotes (such as childhood with his grandfather on the ranch, and his valedictorian speech on space) stuff that journo's would call background to contextualize. This is probably useful for the casual reader who knows little about Amazon.

If you're generally across tech and management principles, and looking specifically about how Bezos thought about running and building Amazon as a company, it's a more valuable use of time to just read the letters themselves - go to the primary source.

[Aymeric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast and easy book to read. I enjoyed it especially after reading the "everything store" book. It is the perfect recap and complement to it. For the readers and/or leaders who are fascinated by the "Amazon machine", I highly recommend this book.

Some of my favorite extracts / key take-aways:
"Amazon leadership principle - 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."

"Here are the questions Amazon always ask: Who is the customer? What is the customer problem or opportunity? What is the most important customer benefit? How do you know what the customer needs? What does the customer experience look like?"

"Understand your flywheel: What is at the center of your company's flywheel? What are the key drivers or activities that turn your flywheel? How do those drivers reinforce each other to make your flywheel spin faster?"

"Steps to write a 6 pages narrative: 1. Write the press release; 2. write the FAQs; 3.Define the user interaction (explain how it works); 4. Write the manual ; 5. Answer the customer questions that Amazon always ask (see above).

"Behavioral-based questions at Amazon: Tell me about a time when you faced with a problem that had a number of possible solutions. What was the problem and how did you determine the course of action? What was the outcome of that choice? When did you take a risk, make a mistake or fail? How did you respond and how did you grow from that experience? Describe a time you took the lead on a project. What di you do when you needed to motivate a group of individuals or promote collaboration on a particular project? How have you leveraged data to develop a strategy?"

[Vũ Phạm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazon is a perfect example of how painful it can be to hold onto a compounder stock.
The stock price crashed from 113 USD down to just 6 USD in two years (2000-2002). However, in his year 2000 letter to shareholders, Jeff Bezos wrote that the company was actually stronger than ever. Revenue had grown 8 times bigger. Big ideas were working well, such as solving shipping costs by Prime Amazon. Launching Amazon Marketplace and convincing competitors to sell on Amazon, they increased the number of products and customer traffic.

By 2002, the company had its first profitable quarter and generated over 135 million USD in positive Free Cash Flow. These were very positive signs.

Next came AWS. It started as internal software but turned into a "golden goose" when they expanded it globally. Then came the Kindle, which moved from physical books to digital ones, creating huge cash flow by allowing people to store thousands of books.

Continuously reinvesting this cash into big ideas created a tsunami of success. The company's value grew from 4 billion USD in 2002 to about 2,420 billion USD in 2026. That is an average compound growth of over 30% per year.

This magical performance comes from the company's ability to allocate capital (spend money wisely). That is real growth, but waiting and watching it happen is not easy.

[Joan Leung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each year, Jeff Bezos writes an open letter to Amazon’s shareholders. Over the last 2 decades, these letters have become an unparalleled source of insight into how the world’s richest man thinks about efficiency, online customer experience, retention, managing through crises, and more.

To read Bezos’ shareholder letters is to get a crash course in running a high-growth internet business from someone who mastered it before any of the playbooks were written. Therefore, Steve and Karen analyze the letters and unpack the most important wisdom in 14 principles.

My Takeaway:

· It’s all about the long-term…

· Customer centricity as a north star

· High-quality, high-velocity decision-making

· Put effort into inputs, not financial outputs

· Build a disciplined, patient, and nurturing culture

· Raise the bar on hiring… again and again

We are lucky that Jeff Bezos takes the time each year to share his knowledge with the world in these shareholder letters. As an entrepreneur, in order to improve, I have to read… a lot. Bezos’ shareholder letters are a must-read for anyone interested in growing business.

[Ronald Skjálfandafljót · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book deep dives into the principles and thought processes of Amazon.com's founder Jeff Bezos. Steve Anderson expertly dissects shareholder letters between 1997 - 2018, as well as speeches done by Mr Bezos, to map out what drives this company. It provides answers to : How does a company as large as Amazon still operate as though they are still a startup? Though not foolproof, concepts such as the Day 1 concept, high standards, successful failures, flywheels are applicable to all aspects of life! Whether you are running a business or just a salaried employee, the Bezos Letters sets out a thought-provoking framework, which has over the past 2 decades supercharged a startup into one of the largest companies in the world. In the same way, these principles can supercharge your business or life too! It's always Day 1.

[Georges Fadel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The letters that Bezos personally wrote each year over the last 20 plus years to the stockholders of Amazon are fascinating reads in themselves. What this book does is take them from an interesting read to actionable concepts that any business can put into practice. My personal favorite section is the Growth Cycle: Build (obsess over customers, apply long term thinking, understand your flywheel). “Working backwards from customer needs often demands that we acquire new competencies and exercise new muscles, never mind how uncomfortable and awkward-feeling those first steps might be.” is a great reminder no matter how long you have been in business. Steve and Karen have invested the time to extract important concepts that any business can apply. They’ve done the hard work - now you can reap the benefits by just reading the book.

[Artem Rodichev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steve analyzes annual letters that Jeff wrote every year being the CEO of Amazon. They are very profound and demonstrate all the key principles that led Amazon to the success. While this knowledge is nothing new and all the letters can be easily found on the web, the way Steve analyses them, maps with the Amazon history and extracts 14 principles out of them is brilliant.

Test:
1. Encourage “Successful Failure”
2. Bet on Big Ideas
3. Practice Dynamic Invention and Innovation

Build:
4. Obsess Over Customers
5. Apply Long-Term Thinking
6. Understand Your Flywheel

Accelerate:
7. Generate High-Velocity Decisions
8. Make Complexity Simple
9. Accelerate Time with Technology
10. Promote Ownership

Scale:
11. Maintain Your Culture
12. Focus on High Standards
13. Measure What Matters, Question What’s Measured, and Trust Your Gut
14. Believe It’s Always Day 1

[Plamen Apostolov · Rating 1 out of 5]

Изключителна загуба на време. Очаквах нещо като едновремешните христоматии тип “какво е искал да каже автора”, просто за да видя различна гледна точка. В същото време получих догадки за това как е мислил Безос, без дори авторът да го е срещал. Единствено в ролята му на потребител и на базата на публични публикации.
Малко книгата е написана все едно авторът е имал предвид 14 принципа и се е опитал да ги докаже чрез писмата до акционерите. Би било интересно някой да зададе въпрос на Безос какво мисли за тези 14 принципа, с които “е изградил Амазон”.
Ако ви харесва биографията на Тим Кук, сигурно и тази книга ще ви хареса. Иначе, силно се съмнявам. Може би най-грешно похарчените ми пари за книга от доста време насам.

[AttackGirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recall my mother telling me I was going to mess up my warranty if I rip the brand new cars wires out (cough 1986) as I took a cassette player and hooked it into my car stereo so I could listen to books on tape as I drove.

So just imagine how happy I am daily, even today temps went up to 59, so I’m painting the outside of the second floor and listening to the Bezos letters audiobook on my iPhone audible app.

I get my subscriptions and can focus on my projects vs. Running to the store. I’m not a leave the planet fan but understand his logic about setting the foundation for the future.

Now if I could just get audible to log into Goodreads.. ugh!

[Louis Ng · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good review of the Jeff Bezos letter to investors

It's just me I am taking one star off because I thought the book is about 14 Principles by Jeff Bezos but instead they were from the author. However, I do love how the authors went through, digest, rationalize, analyze and come up with their 14. From time and again in the book, readers were slapped with the part of the real Bezos letters where great ah-ha moments brought up on me. Those things seemed so obvious yet important. It's a good read.

[parastimo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an inspirational and insightful read.

Having some knowledge about Amazon and its founder, I have to admit that it wasn't much. After reading the book I have much more appreciation towards Jeff Bezos and I am eager to apply some of the ideas presented in this book in my own endeavours, as well.

Even if some of the ideas are close to common sense, it might be only because Jeff and others have been so open about them during all this time.

[Farzaneharab · Rating 3 out of 5]

اگر صاحب کسب و کاری هستید این کتاب به شما کمک می کند ایده های خود را عملی کنید.
این کتاب توسط شخص جف بزوس نوشته نشده است بلکه براساس نامه هایی که هر ساله جف بزوس برای کارمندان خود ارسال میکرده نوشته شده است.

راه هایی که آمازون طی کرده تا به این حد از موفقیت رسیده میتواند برای شما کاربردی باشد.
اگر هم کسب و کاری ندارید این کتاب به شما کمک میکند که در زمان استارت کسب و کار خود بهترین کار ها را انجام دهید.

[Miguel Yances Rojas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro que condensa la hoja de ruta de la gran compañía Amazon

Un libro de gerencia que enmarca a través de 14 principios la filosofía de la empresa AMAZON. Alguno de los aspectos que me llamó la atención es la cultura de innovación y pensamiento a largo plazo que existe en los miembros de la organización al igual que el programa de aprendizaje continúo.
Por otro lado, la cultura del error controlado bajo que le permite estar centrado en el cliente.

[Luanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

O livro é interessante para entender a criação e evolução da Amazon. Não traz nenhum conceito novo ou algo revolucionário que não tenha sido tratado por qualquer grande livro sobre inovação ou tecnologia. Para mim, que não tinha conhecimento direto sobre a história da Amazon, foi interessante entender sobre como as coisas são aplicadas lá, quase como estudo de caso. Entretanto, não creio que tenha adquirido nenhum novo conhecimento

[Kent Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bezos Letters is exceptionally well-research, well-written, and engaging. The authors take Bezos' annual shareholder letters and distill how you can use 14 distinct principles to grow your business, whether it's a traditional business, startup, or non-profit. It takes a lot of skill to blend data and storytelling in such a compelling way. Well done, Steve and Karen!

[William Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool read - picked it up as a recommendation to “get to know Bezos better” and it definitely changed my opinion on the man and the company. A great story about an entrepreneur and an innovator who created a business for “his grandkids” as all this decisions are said to be long-term over short-term

[William Yip · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author padded the book with superfluous stories. He repeated passages from shareholder letters multiple times. Reading the actual letters would provide a better understanding of how Amazon operates. That said, the author does go over the essential passages and provides a good overview of the principles the company uses.