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7 Je Bezos Quotes That WillChange The Way You Think
AboutBusiness
Jessica Stillman, Inc.May 8, 2014, 9:53 AM
Strategy
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20,7662
Ted S. Warren/APJe BezosNo one can accuse Je Bezos of thinking
small or falling prey toconvention. The man who dared to build the
everything store has afamously idiosyncratic approach to
business.From the big things like largely ignoring prots(and mostly
getting awaywith it) to small ones like starting meetings with some
communal reading,the Amazon.com founder doesn't do things the usual
way.What's the thinking behind his quirky ways and what can you
learn from theBezos approach to business that might change how
things are done at yourown company?Recently on his blog current
Microsoft employee and former private equityfund partner Tren Grin
suggested you go straight to the source, helpfullycombing through
Bezos' public utterances for valuable nuggets of wisdom.Inc.com
reached out to ask if we could round up a few of the quotes
heunearthed. Here's a sampling:"Your margin is my opportunity."As
Grin explains "Bezos sees a competitor's love of margins and
other
-
nancial 'ratios' as an opportunity for Amazon since the
competitor willcling to them while he focuses on absolute dollar
free cash ow and slicesthrough them like a hot knife through
butter.""Bezos spelled out his focus on absolute dollar free cash
ow in his 2004letter to shareholders. He is not about to run his
company based on a ratiomuch beloved by someone outside the
company, such as a Wall Streetanalyst," Grin elaborates. Are you
looking focused on the right numbersfor your business or are you
more worried about hitting metrics thatsomeone else told you
matter?"The balance of power is shifting toward consumers and away
fromcompanies The right way to respond to this if you are a company
is toput the vast majority of your energy, attention, and dollars
into building agreat product or service and put a smaller amount
into shouting about it,marketing it.""In the old world, you devoted
30% of your time to building a great serviceand 70% of your time to
shouting about it. In the new world, that inverts,"Bezos continued.
Are you too focused on how you talk about your businessand not on
what it actually does? "The very best businesses acquirecustomers
'organically' without advertising. Great products and word ofmouth
drives sales at these companies. By contrast, companies which
mustsell their wares with huge advertising budgets are losing their
edge in theInternet era," comments Grin."If you double the number
of experiments you do per year you're going todouble your
inventiveness."Perhaps increasing your innovation quotient is
simpler than it rst appears.Simply try more things. Based on this
quote, that appears to be theAmazon approach."If you decide that
you're going to do only the things you know are goingto work,
you're going to leave a lot of opportunity on the table."This point
is obviously related to the one above. Experiments, by denition,can
fail. Avoid failure to spare your ego and you cut down on the
number ofexperiments, and it's often a bigger problem to fail to
experiment than it isto experiment and fail. According to
Grin,"Warren Buett puts it thisway: 'Typically, our most egregious
mistakes fall in the omission, ratherthan the commission, category.
That may spare Charlie [Munger] and mesome embarrassment, since you
don't see these errors; but their invisibilitydoes not reduce their
cost.'""You have to be willing to be misunderstood if you're going
to innovate."OK, it's not only Bezos who says innovation can be
lonely, but he certainlyexemplies the principle. "You can't
outperform the market if you are the
-
market. Similarly, you must adopt a non-consensus view and be
right aboutthat view to beat competitors," Grin says."Frugality
drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the
onlyways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out."Do
you spend your days dreaming of a time a ood of money will
scouraway your business's problems? Your daydreams may be
misguided. "Moremoney often equals more problems. Companies with
too much money areoften less rather than more innovative," notes
Grin. It can, of course, behard to learn to love your constraints,
but this quote suggests there arebenets to be found in doing
so."The great thing about fact-based decisions is that they
overrule thehierarchy."Many companies make choices based on the
seniority or charisma of thosearguing the various points of view.
Not at Amazon. Could your companybenet from trying a more
fact-based approach?Disclosure: Je Bezos is an investor in Business
Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos
Expeditions.This post originally appeared at Inc.. Copyright 2014.
Follow Inc. onTwitter.
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