The Bezos Letters: 14 Principles to Grow Your Business Like Amazon

by Steve Anderson, Karen Anderson

Overview

The Bezos Letters lays out the fourteen growth principles that Amazon uses every day by examining Jeff Bezos’ personal letters to shareholders.

Jeff Bezos created Amazon, the fastest company to reach $100 billion in sales ever, making him the richest man in the world. Business owners marvel at Amazon’s success, but don’t realize they have the answers right at their fingertips as Bezos reveals his hidden roadmap in his annual letters to shareholders. For the first time, business analyst Steve Anderson unlocks the key lessons, mindset, principles, and steps Bezos used, and continues to use, to make Amazon the massive success it is today. Steve shows business owners, leaders, and CEOs how to apply those same practices and watch their business become more efficient, productive, and successful—fast!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781642793338
Publisher:	Morgan James Publishing
Publication date:	07/23/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Sales rank:	448,653
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Steve Anderson has spent his 35+ year career helping the insurance industry understand, integrate, and leverage current and emerging technologies. From business management systems to social media, Steve analyzes what’s happening now and explains its implications for the future. He was invited to be one of the original 150 “thought leaders/influencers” on LinkedIn and has over 300,000 followers. Steve currently resides in Franklin, Tennessee.
Karen Anderson, M.S. is an author, publisher, and direct response marketer whose fingerprints are all over New York Times, USA Today, and other bestselling books. For the past 30+ years, she’s helped entrepreneurs and businesses clarify and communicate their messages, grow their businesses, and increase their reach using the power of a book. She grew up as an “insurance brat” and spent weekends with her dad looking behind buildings and parking lots checking for potential risks.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Section One - Test

Chapter 1: Encourage Successful Failure

Chapter 2: Bet on Big Ideas

Chapter 3: Practice Dynamic Invention

Section Two - Build

Chapter 4: Always Apply Long-Term Thinking

Chapter 5: Be Obsessed with Your Customer

Chapter 6: Understand Your Flywheel

Section Three - Accelerate

Chapter 7: Make High-Velocity Decisions

Chapter 8: Make Complexity Simple

Chapter 9: Accelerate Time with Technology

Chapter 10: Create Owners

Section Four - Scale

Chapter 11: Maintain “Over the Top” High Standards

Chapter 12: Sustain an Innovative Culture

Chapter 13: Measure What Matters (And Question What’s Measured)

Chapter 14: Believe It’s Always Day 1

Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

09/09/2019

Anderson, a professional speaker on tech and business, takes a perceptive look at Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s annual shareholder letters, extracting 14 key “growth principles” that both the large corporation and “solopreneur” can use to scale up. Asserting that, “in some form or another,” every principle can be found in each of the 21 letters issued to Amazon shareholders since 1997, Anderson begins with the intriguing “Encourage ‘Successful Failure,’ ” a point made by Bezos in explaining why he doesn’t regret high-profile flops like Pets.com. Principle 4, “Obsess Over Customers,” is illustrated by how Amazon pushed third-party merchants hosted on the site to prioritize customer care via its advocacy for “Frustration-Free Packaging.” Other principles include “Make Complexity Simple” (which led to Frustration-Free Packaging) and “Promote Ownership,” which involves the dramatic differences in mindset between an owner and a “tenant,” and the importance of getting employees to adopt the mindset of the former. Whether businesspeople can generate growth by adopting Anderson’s recommendations will have to be seen, but they should certainly enjoy the stories and observations he shares about one of the world’s most influential companies. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly