Amazon’s leadership principles and what you can borrow to innovate and grow

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Forbes: The Next Boom: Entering The Year Of The Digital Customer

Aug 27, 2021

“But what is digital transformation?” asks John Rossman, former Amazon executive, founder of Rossman Partners, and...

Former Amazon Executive Joins Advisory Board Of Swedish SAAS Company Innovation360

Aug 10, 2021

John Rossman, former Amazon executive and digital leadership author, will chair the advisory board and has invested in...

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About John

John Rossman

John was an executive at Amazon.com where he played a key role in launching the Marketplace business and third-party selling platform and led the merchant services business.

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Recommended Books

KUDOS FOR THE AMAZON WAY

I first read The Amazon Way in 2014 at a time we were still early in our turnaround efforts at Best Buy and found it extremely stimulating at the time. In this new edition, John Rossman provides an updated, in-depth and invaluable view of the principles that are fueling Amazon’s extraordinary business success. John’s suggestion to add a new principle focused on the Golden Rule is a great one for every company, as, more than ever, we need business to serve the common good!

Hubert Joly

Former chairman and CEO of Best Buy, author The Heart of Business - Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism

In The Amazon Way, John Rossman brilliantly illuminates Amazon’s secretive corporate culture, using HIS rare insider’s perspective to show how Jeff Bezos has created unique systems that facilitate good decision making at all levels of his company.

Brad Stone

Author of The Everything Store and Amazon Unbound

I helped recruit John to Amazon. Rossman has done a masterful job at capturing the heart and soul of Amazon, the leadership principles at Amazon, and making them available to all of us

Jason Child

CFO of Splunk, former VP of Finance Amazon

The Amazon Way is an authoritative guide to the principles that drive and define one of most extraordinary organizations in human history. It’s one of a small number of books that have fundamentally shaped my understanding of Amazon as a journalist covering this peculiar giant of the tech industry. John Rossman’s perspective reflects the deep experience and informed understanding of someone who worked directly with Jeff Bezos and Amazon’s senior leadership team. This new edition proposes an important 15th leadership principle that Bezos’ successor as CEO, Andy Jassy, would be wise to consider adopting.

Todd Bishop

GeekWire editor and co-founder

Rossman’s ‘super-powers’ come from his capacity to translate Amazon’s leadership principles success into business classic for any business that is seeking to become a more agile, customer-centric enterprise. The Amazon Way is his most captivating as Rossman creates a combination of story-telling and credibility based on his capacity to clearly articulate the practical value of the lessons learned from his experience running in the fastest of all fast lanes.

Larry Hightower

Chief Executive Officer Vxtra Health, Inc.

In spite of its success and scale, Amazon continues to be one of the most innovative and agile enterprises in the history of business. In “The Amazon Way” John Rossman reveals the fundamental leadership principles that enable that success. It’s a must read if you’re in an industry that competes with Amazon, or aspires to be the Amazon of your industry.

Jason Goldberg

Chief Strategy Officer Publicis

The Amazon Way was an essential tool that I referenced often as I led Blue Origin. The stories and background behind each of the Amazon leadership principles provided both essential insight into Amazon and valuable context to the guidance I received from Jeff Bezos as we rapidly scaled Blue Origin in size and into new business areas. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to know how one of the largest organizations in the world remains innovative and customer-obsessed while growing through ambiguity, uncertainty, and change.

Rob Meyerson

CEO of Delalune Space; Former President of Blue Origin

Any serious student of business has to marvel at the incredible story that is Amazon. How can one company be so successful in its efforts to redefine, and ultimately conquer, so many different industries? In this book, former Amazon exec Josh Rossman shares the answer: a clearly articulated set of leadership and management principles that have guided Amazon since its inception. This is required reading for any leader who has aspirations of redefining markets and grabbing share from legacy competitors.

Matt Dixon

Author, The Challenger Sale and The Effortless Experience

The Amazon Way is timeless and priceless. Amazon may be the most customer-centric company on Earth. But how they do it is almost impossible to replicate, until now. In Amazon Way, Rossman breaks down Amazon’s leadership principles and simplifies them so any company can put them into play today. This is a textbook I wish I had when I first started in the Industry.

Jesse Cole

Owner of Savannah Bananas, Author of Find Your Yellow Tux

Rossman delivers an insightful, insiders view of how Amazon changed the world and became the category king of massive B2C and B2B categories. Read this book!

Christopher Lochhead

#1 Apple business podcaster & #1 Amazon marketing author

I’ve long studied and admired Amazon’s unique role in disrupting retail, supply chain, technology, and so much more. The Amazon Way brings an insider view into the leadership principles shaping the strategy and decision making of America’s most innovative company of our generation. Rossman’s viewpoint illuminates how Amazon’s customer obsession guides its decisions and culture. Creating a fascinating leadership playbook principle by principle.

Seth Waite

CEO at Handled

I observed John successfully integrate the 14 leadership principles into his client work on a daily basis during our 12 years together at Alvarez & Marsal. The 14 leadership principles can be used as a “Preflight CheckList”. I refer to the principles before launching any critical initiative.

Tom Elsenbrook

CEO of Alvarez and Marsal Corporate Performance Improvement.

The Amazon Way is an essential read for executives seeking an understanding of the core pillars that have supported Amazon’s phenomenal success.