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- Amazon’s new CEO Andy Jassy sent his first company-wide email on Tuesday.
- The memo makes it clear that he will stick to Jeff Bezos’ principles of innovation and speed.
- It also shows that Jassy can broaden Bezos’ vision to focus not only on customers but also on employees.
Amazon’s new CEO Andy Jassy sent out his first company-wide email on Tuesday.
In the note, obtained by Eugene Kim of Insider, Jassy expressed his admiration for founder Jeff Bezos, reiterated his commitment to building an innovative culture and pledged to make Amazon “better every day”.
It comes at an important time for the company. Amazon is under pressure to maintain strong stock performance, tackle worker unionization efforts and reports of abuse, and deal with regulators who hover around and allege unfair business practices.
Insider spoke to Brian Dumaine, an Amazon researcher and author of “Bezonomics,” and Eric Yaverbaum, CEO of Fortune 500, communications consultant, about Jassy’s first memo. The two agreed that the memo underscored Jassy’s commitment to Bezos ethics and showed how Jassy would work to improve the employee experience at Amazon, a key issue Bezos himself acknowledged. “Please know I care,” Jassy wrote of strengthening Amazon’s corporate culture.
“If I were his PR,” Yaverbaum said, “I would have told him to write exactly what he wrote.”
Broadening the focus of Bezos’ consumer first vision
Jassy wastes no time in stating his top business priority, quickly recognizing that his goal is to “stay focused on improving the lives of customers every day, while taking care of our teammates.”
There have been reports of Amazon delivery men peeing bottles, warehouse workers documenting every minute of their day because they feared being made redundant, employees logging 60-hour work weeks and employees trying but failing to organize in Alabama.
Bezos was aware of these issues. In his April letter to shareholders, he wrote that Amazon needs to “do a better job” for its employees. This memo shows that Jassy heard this message loud and clear.
“Workers’ rights have become a huge image problem for Amazon,” Dumaine said. “He had to say something about it.
Yaverbaum, likewise, said Jassy wisely acknowledged that Amazon “isn’t always going to do things right. And changes will have to be made.”
Set the tone for your leadership style
As Insider has reported, Amazon has also recently faced significant turnover in its vice president ranks. Some employees are now worried that leaders of slow-moving companies are hurting Amazon’s culture.
But in one line, Jassy sets the record straight.
“We have shown our willingness to make bold, innovative, long-term bets to improve the lives of customers. You should expect this to continue,” he wrote. “We are also moving quickly.”
This statement also serves another function, Dumaine said.
Jassy says “don’t expect me to be a soft, fuzzy CEO,” Dumaine said. “The culture of hard driving created by Bezos will continue.”
Clearly expressing allegiance to Bezos
Jassy also highlights his experience learning from Bezos, adding that he worked under him for two decades. He expresses his love for the company and his deep respect for the founder of the company.
Yaverbaum said it was Jassy’s way of assuring employees that the leadership transition would be a smooth one. “Everyone wants to feel a certain sense of stability,” Yaverbaum said. And no matter what you think of Bezos, “he did it,” he added.
Dumaine agreed, saying Jassy made it clear that he was “not throwing” Bezos’ manual.
Inspiring workers
In the final part of the memo, Jassy urges workers to continue their influential work, from providing groceries and personal protective equipment during the pandemic to Amazon Web Services helping businesses like
Tic
and
Netflix
support growing demand.
For Dumaine, this last section is meant to inspire not only current employees, but also potential hires.
“Every business now needs a goal besides making money,” he said, adding that Amazon’s only goal for years was to keep customers happy.
“It’s not the kind of statement that gets people out of bed in the morning. Workers want to feel like they’re contributing to society,” Dumaine added. “This is something Jassy is going to have to understand, to communicate a goal beyond making the customer happy.”
Here is Jassy’s full email to the Amazon team:
Amazonians.
I wanted to send a quick note during my first week as CEO of Amazon to communicate a few things.
First of all, I am truly honored to take on this role. I have a lot of respect for Jeff, I have been fortunate enough to work directly for him for almost 20 years and I know how much of a responsibility it is to do this job. You have my commitment, along with the commitment of the broader leadership team, to staying focused on improving the lives of customers every day, while taking care of our teammates and helping you grow and grow. be successful in your career.
Second, I love Amazon. I have been here for over 24 years, have worked at many of our businesses and am even more passionate about Amazon than when I arrived in 1997. Working at a company that starts with the customer and evolves their strategies and tactics from there. is unusual. Many companies claim they will, few actually do. Amazon is rare that way. We are also inventors. If you want to change the results for customers, you have to be prepared (and hungry) to constantly invent and reinvent, even if it sometimes means cannibalizing your own businesses. We have shown a willingness to make bold, innovative and long-term bets to improve the lives of customers. You should expect this to continue. We are also going fast. We are strategically patient, but tactically impatient. Speed matters disproportionately to customers and businesses of all sizes at every stage of their evolution. Few people wake up thinking, “I want my articles to arrive slower”, or “I want my customer experience to become stale” or “I want to work in a slowly moving company”. Acting quickly to understand what matters to customers, solve their problems, make their lives easier and continue to invent for them is at the heart of our culture and will remain so.
Third, I just want you to know that you, my fellow Amazonians, mean a lot to me. I started at Amazon when there were only about 250 employees. We now have over 1.2 million employees. It has happened quickly, especially over the past decade as our businesses have grown. At our size, the pace at which we try to scale for clients and with our penchant for experimentation, we won’t get it all. We have issues we need to work on – some can be resolved quickly, others will take longer. But know that I care and we will work together to make Amazon better every day.
Finally, I want to remind everyone of the role Amazon continues to play in the world. It is quite extraordinary. We ship and deliver tens of millions of packages to our customers every day. It’s when there is no pandemic. During the pandemic, that number increased dramatically as we helped so many people get their PPE, groceries and other essentials they needed while so many physical stores were closed. Probably like many of you, a lot of people have said to me “Thank God for Amazon, I don’t know how I could have done without them”. We’ve also delivered business continuity to millions of customers through AWS, while helping businesses like
Zoom
, Netflix, Blackboard and,
Epic games
dealing with the sudden and sustained increase in so many full-time planted people in their homes (I don’t know if you have kids who are also obsessed with Epic Games Fortnight, but my son seemed very grateful that he had well evolved :-). Amazon offerings such as Prime Video, Amazon Music, Twitch, Audible, Alexa, and FireTV provided people with entertainment and companionship when distractions were welcome. We created half a million jobs last year and have continued to lead the way by increasing starting wages to at least $ 15 in the United States (more than double the federal minimum wage). Many companies have followed, and we hope many more will. We’ve helped 1.9 million sellers expand their customer base to a global audience and dramatically change their revenue outlook. We are working to create a more sustainable planet with The Climate Pledge, our commitment to be zero carbon by 2040, and we are now the world’s largest buyer of renewable energy. Last month, we committed $ 150 million to empower black-owned businesses with our Black Business Accelerator. And we created a $ 2 billion housing equity fund to preserve and create more than 20,000 affordable homes for families in the Puget Sound, Arlington and Nashville areas.That’s a pretty remarkable amount of impact in the world, and we’re just getting started. It’s so * early * in the way we’ll serve consumers, vendors, developers, businesses, authors, artists, creators, and other partners. We will do it together, listening to customers, understanding their needs and inventing for them to improve their lives.
I can’t wait to continue the adventure together.
Andy
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