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Working Backwards

Insights, Stories and Secrets from Inside Amazon

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Working Backwards gives an insider's account of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and best practices from two long-time, top-level Amazon executives.

In 2018 Amazon became the world’s second trillion dollar company after Apple: a remarkable success story for a company launched out of a garage in 1994. How did they achieve this? And how can others learn from this extraordinary success and replicate it?

Colin started at Amazon in 1998; Bill joined in 1999. Their time at Amazon covered a period of unmatched innovation that brought products and services including Kindle, Amazon Prime, Amazon Echo and Alexa, and Amazon Web Services to life. Through the story of these innovations they reveal and codify the principles and practices that have driven the success of one of the most extraordinary companies the world has ever known, from the famous 14-leadership principles, the bar raiser hiring process, and Amazon’s founding characteristics: customer obsession, long-term thinking, eagerness to invent, and operational excellence.

Through their wealth of experience they offer unprecedented access to the Amazon way as it was refined, articulated and proven to be repeatable, scalable and adaptable. Working Backwards shows how success is not achieved by the genius of any single leader, but rather through commitment to and execution of a set of well-defined, rigorously executed principles and practices that you can apply at your own company, no matter the size.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Colin Bryar and Bill Carr (P)2021 Macmillan Audio
Economics Investing & Trading Workplace & Organisational Behavior Workplace Culture Business Success Inspiring Innovation Management Leadership

Critic reviews

"Essential for any leader in any industry." (Kim Scott, best-selling author of Radical Candor)

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Great insights to how the Amazon machine works, how great products are built and developed at Amazon like this very one we are using. Learnt a lot from it.

Very Insightful

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In business we often over simplify complex issues and decisions, just so we can fit them on to a PowerPoint slide. Stop! Spend more time upfront on figuring out options and use tools and processes that force us to really think, instead of shutting down our brains with pretty pictures, bullet points, and presentation skills.

Can't recommend this book enough, explains a lot about Amazon as well if that interests you, but it's the processes that I really advocate for.

Don't dumb things down, tackle the details

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It’s an inspiring book. The storytelling is great. The mechanisms and approaches are easy to understand thanks to great examples. I recommend it to anyone working in tech, marketing, product, or launching their own business in any industry.

One of the best books I’ve read recently

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As we move towards cloud, it’s good to understand how AWS started and the other ideas that formed into big businesses. Customer focus is a main driver.

Interesting read

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Lot's of interesting insights and valuable lessons. Much easier to work on the long term goals if you have deep pockets.

Well worth reading

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