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A review by abelikoff
The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles Behind the World's Most Disruptive Company by John Rossman
4.0
The book is basically an advocacy brochure for Amazon Leadership Principles. As far as the Principles go, I am a big fan - they are honest, emphasize the right traits and suggest really robust behavior patterns. I definitely find myself reviewing them and checking my decisions against them on a regular basis. So from that aspect, this book is highly recommended.
I do disagree however with the Author's insistence, that these Principles are inextricably linked to the "gladiator pit" corporate culture (at least the way I see it based on many external and internal accounts). The Author is constantly trying to explain and excuse the tongue lashings, "beatdowns", and cross-team Darwinian survival as the essential traits, that both support the Principles and also allow Amazon.com to constantly push the bar higher. I do believe that strong leadership doesn't have to be based on war mentality. But that is a completely different topic.
Finally, the two appendices (one on "self-service," the other on "platformization") feel somewhat irrelevant to the topic and artificial. I don't think they contribute much to the overall narration.
Bottom line: in my taxonomy it falls under a "reference" category. It is a really good book - as long as you focus on "what" and "why" and ignore war stories. As such, I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone working in pretty much any capacity - not necessarily in Technology or for a large corporation. The Principles are solid and the book is concise enough to grant a high signal/noise ratio. Get this book!
I do disagree however with the Author's insistence, that these Principles are inextricably linked to the "gladiator pit" corporate culture (at least the way I see it based on many external and internal accounts). The Author is constantly trying to explain and excuse the tongue lashings, "beatdowns", and cross-team Darwinian survival as the essential traits, that both support the Principles and also allow Amazon.com to constantly push the bar higher. I do believe that strong leadership doesn't have to be based on war mentality. But that is a completely different topic.
Finally, the two appendices (one on "self-service," the other on "platformization") feel somewhat irrelevant to the topic and artificial. I don't think they contribute much to the overall narration.
Bottom line: in my taxonomy it falls under a "reference" category. It is a really good book - as long as you focus on "what" and "why" and ignore war stories. As such, I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone working in pretty much any capacity - not necessarily in Technology or for a large corporation. The Principles are solid and the book is concise enough to grant a high signal/noise ratio. Get this book!