Amazon's Leadership Principles: A Critical Examination

This article offers a critical look at Amazon's leadership principles, particularly "Customer Obsession," "Ownership," and "Bias for Action." The author argues that Amazon overemphasizes speed and meeting superficial customer demands, neglecting true customer needs and long-term value. Regarding "Customer Obsession," the author criticizes Amazon's over-reliance on customer feedback rather than proactively developing potentially impactful technologies. On "Ownership," the author points to a lack of communication and collaboration within Amazon, with significant information silos between teams. Concerning "Bias for Action," the author believes Amazon overemphasizes speed at the expense of product quality and customer trust, advocating for a "bias for inaction" mechanism at senior engineering levels to ensure high standards before product launches.