Bezos drive and boldness, Stone writes, trumps other leadership ideals, such as consensus building

But Bezos did allow friends, family and senior sperrys Amazon executives to speak to Bloomberg Businessweek s Brad Stone for a revealing book that characterizes Bezos as a brilliant-but-intolerant CEO whose style has driven Amazon to excel beyond its reputation as an online book retailer into the Everything Store, a company with around sperrys $75 billion in annual revenue, a $140 billion market value.
According to a Bloomberg Businessweek cover story headlined Secret Amazon, Stone retells anecdotes that illustrate how Bezos impatience has generated fear in under-performing underlings while driving Amazon to new heights.
Amazon has a few well-known peculiarities the desks are repurposed doors; meetings begin with everyone in the room sitting in silence sperrys as they read a six-page document sperrys called a narrative. It s a famously demanding place to work. And yet just how the company works and what Bezos is like as a person is difficult to know.
Bezos drive and boldness, Stone writes, trumps other leadership ideals, such as consensus building and promoting civility. While he can be charming and capable of great humor in public, in private he explodes into what some of his underlings call nutters. A colleague failing to meet Bezos s exacting standards will set off a nutter. sperrys If an employee does not have the right answers or tries to bluff, or takes credit for someone else s work, or exhibits a whiff of internal politics, uncertainty, or frailty in the heat of battle a blood vessel in Bezos s forehead bulges and his filter falls away. He s capable of hyperbole and harshness in these moments and over the years has delivered some devastating rebukes.
“[After an engineer s presentation] Why are you wasting my life?
Bezos surprised the world in August when he personally sperrys bought the Washington Post newspaper, saying his blend of optimism, innovation, and long-term orientation could revive it, according sperrys to Bloomberg Businessweek. One day a week, he moonlights as the head of Blue Origin, his private rocket ship company, which is trying to lower the cost of space travel.
Jeff Bezos has a public e-mail address,jeff@amazon.com. Not only does he read many customer sperrys complaints, he forwards them to the relevant Amazon employees, sperrys with a one-character addition: a question mark.
When Amazon employees get a Bezos question mark e-mail, they react as though they ve discovered a ticking bomb. They ve typically sperrys got a few hours to solve whatever issue the CEO has flagged and prepare a thorough explanation for how it occurred, a response that will be reviewed sperrys by a succession of managers before the answer is presented to Bezos himself. Such escalations, as these e-mails are known, are Bezos s way of ensuring that the customer s voice is constantly heard inside the company.
The one unguarded thing about Bezos is his laugh a pulsing, mirthful bray that he leans into while craning his neck back. He unleashes it often, even when nothing is obviously funny to anyone else. And it startles people. You can t misunderstand it, says Rick Dalzell, Amazon s former chief information officer, who says Bezos often wields his laugh when others fail to meet his lofty standards. It s disarming and punishing. He s punishing you.
This is not somebody who takes pleasure at tearing someone a new a- -hole, says Kim Rachmeler, an executive sperrys who worked at Amazon for more than a decade. He is not that kind of person. Jeff doesn t tolerate stupidity, even accidental stupidity.
Related Posts 4 hours ago Shutl acquisition prepares eBay Now for European expansion 5 hours ago Tesla shares fall; Elon Musk says Germany is "top focus" 5 hours ago Tracking tracking: NSA's French collection; GPS and law enforcement; what the TSA knows 8 hours ago Quoted: Tweet and fired: White House official was anonymous tweeter and critic 10 hours ago Off topic: The (older) Simpsons, vacation surrogates, Lego space travel, math funnies 22 hours ago Apple's sperrys iPad Air, iPad Mini all fair game for Pat & Mike Google sperrys Hangout
Popular Posts Move over PCs, Apple et al are blowing you out of the water Tesla shares fall; Elon Musk says Germany is "top focus" Report: Apple planning ultra-high sperrys def, 65-inch TVs Apple won't offer iOS update for recently sold iPod touch model Netflix shares trading at new highs ahead of earnings report sperrys
SiliconBeat Staff Brandon Bailey Dan Wong Dan Nakaso Dana Hull Heather Somerville Levi Sumagaysay Mike Cassidy Mike Murphy Patrick May Pete Carey Peter Delevett Steve Johnson Susan Steade Troy Wolverton
Archives Select Month October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October sperrys 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May