Inyang defines leadership as the process of influencing people so that they strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the realization of group goals. In consideration, Amazon’s, the Washington Post’s and Blue Origin’s success and favorable financial statistics do not constitute sufficient evidence to state that Jeff Bezos is in fact a great leader, as it is not his success but rather how he became successful that can shed light on his leadership skills. This paper will analyze Bezos’ leadership style throughout his professional career, personal characteristics, communication with employees, vision and impact on his companies, to comprehend the reasons behind his naming as Fortune’s 2016 #1 Corporate Leader.
Bezos’ leadership approach has evolved throughout the years, as his endeavors have become considerably more intricate and time-consuming; the overwhelming workload derived from being the founder and investor of several companies called for a reevaluation of his managing tactics, shifting from a micro-management to a macro-management approach, delegating functions and overseeing the performance of designated company executives. Fortune’s article quotes Patty Stonesifer, long-time Amazon board member, who describes this change. She states, “He was at the center of everything at the beginning. The leadership was Jeff Bezos”, implying that Amazon’s CEO was involved in all decisions, at all stages of business. In contrast, she also states that “Today it’s not a hub-and-spoke connecting to him. He has become a great leader of leaders”.
Conversely, his leadership style has remained constant: Bezos’ style has the characteristics that define transformational leadership. According to Ngozi, Jones and Prince, transformational or charismatic leaders inspire eagerness in their teams and are energetic in motivating their employees to move forward. Transformational leaders are known for extending their vision to their followers, motivating them to pursue goals guided by that vision. In this sense, Bezos undoubtedly promotes the vision for his companies and inspires his employees to align to those expectations. Evidence of this is testimony by The Washington Post employees found in the Fortune article, who describe how during the paper’s transition from print to web format, Bezos’ managerial style was primordial in the development of innovative business tactics that increased monthly web viewers from 30.5 million to 73.4 million in less than three years. Employees acknowledge that Bezos promotes a work atmosphere that allows for risk-taking decisions without fear of punishment if they prove to be unsuccessful. These decisions and initiatives are also inspired by Bezos’ own creativity, who is known to occasionally propose ideas that, though sometimes too edgy to be implemented, can be considered as nothing but creative.
Bezos’ strategy regarding Amazon was to start the site with a narrowed approach (books), testing and developing it until achieving a strong electronic platform and fully understanding the business basics, and then diversify. Amazon’s overwhelming success is no small-part due to Jeff Bezos’ transformational leadership style, that guided the company through the path to accomplish his vision, and allowed it evolve from an online book-retail site, to a site where users can purchase basically any product they can imagine. His perseverance and determination, tested by his understanding that it would take time before the company became profitable, and his spirit for innovation that is strong to this day, were elemental in Amazon becoming the retail-monster it is today.
Jeff Bezos’ personality is described by a family friend, according to Deutschman, as very playful. Moreover, he is regarded by his employees as remarkably smart, careful, intuitive, audacious and determined. These characteristics shape his business tactics, leadership style and managerial approach. His intelligence, intuition and determination make him a ruthless competitor, who seeks to improve his company’s standards through hard-work, effort and focus, while his playfulness and audacity impulse his risk-taking business ventures. These combined traits, however, are known to occasionally generate confrontation, as he is often frustrated by lack of accurate implementation of his ideas. In this matter, opinions regarding his personality are disparate: some qualify him as an explosive character who can instill fear in his employees, while others consider him a compassionate boss. It is the combination and balance of these traits that make him an effective leader, as he must inspire his followers to eagerly pursue objectives while also demanding accurate instruction-following and measurable results.
His confrontational nature, though sometimes considered characteristic of an autocrat, is in fact a business policy Bezos implements to push his employers into coming up with great ideas and strategies by defying status-quo or social cohesion. According to Stone, “the people who do well at Amazon are often those who thrive in an adversarial atmosphere with almost constant friction”. Doubting decisions made by others is, in fact, one of Amazon’s leadership principles, named “Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit”. This principle encourages employees to challenge decisions when they disagree with them, even in occasions where it seems inconvenient, as this characterizes a strong leader: one who has conviction and is tenacious.
Bezos’ strong character encourages competitiveness, innovation and constant learning, but the work atmosphere created by these characteristics is not suitable for everyone. Stone describes how some people who presently work or have worked at Amazon find that the confrontational culture makes them work effectively, while others consider the atmosphere “unfriendly” and are not comfortable with this style. However, it is undeniable that those who have a personality that resonates with Amazon work culture, find in Jeff Bezos a leader that pushes his employees to exploit their full potential, become leaders themselves, and pride in their innovative ideas.
Another attribute that characterizes Bezos’ personality is his frugality. His distinguishing smart utilization of resources, allowed for Amazon to survive years of low-profit returns, while still improving the platform and business model. Regarding frugality, Bezos himself states: “I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out”. To this day, Bezos encourages frugality in his employees, demanding the development of efficient solutions through bright ideas, and is one of Amazon’s core values. According to Mangalindan, the company even grants a “Door Desk Award” to those employees who come up with ideas that result in substantial savings for the company and reduced prices for the customers. This is another aspect that makes Bezos a great leader, as he encourages his followers to “accomplish more with less” and improve self-sufficiency, as described in the company’s principles.
One aspect that deserves analysis is Bezos’ communication with his employees. It is clear that it is impossible for Bezos to manage by himself all the companies he is involved in, such as Amazon, Blue Origin and The Washington Post. In consideration, he maintains an open line of communication with the designated managers or leaders of each firm, and through them, overviews the companies’ operative performance and vision. For The Washington Post, Fortune’s article describes that Bezos has no operational role, but keeps close tabs by having phone meeting every other week, and dedicates two afternoons per year to receive The Post’s team in Seattle for business meetings. For Blue Origin, Bezos attends monthly operational review meetings to inform himself on the company’s performance, as well as receive the opinions of outside experts.
Fortune’s article mentions six-page narratives that Bezos requests before meetings. These are further described by Williams, who explains that for the Amazon CEO, the use of memos forces deeper clarity of ideas that cannot be well presented through Power Point slides. Moreover, the readings of these memos are not interrupted and clearly respond to the attendant’s doubts. In general, Benzos believes that memos allow to explain the story around numeric reports, thus making words more important than numbers.
Moreover, a recent article published by The New York Times, titled “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace”, fiercely criticized Amazon’s work culture, employee treatment and environment. In response, Bezos opened a direct communication line for his employees to reach him if they felt there was any truth to the NYT’s allegations, with the aim of solving the underlying cause of feelings of burden or, in some cases, exploitation. Controlling the work environment of his companies is a difficult task, as this is the direct responsibility of department managers. However, Bezos’ disposition to communicate with his employees to respond to their complaints or recommendations individually, proves his commitment to making Amazon a friendly environment that promotes personal and professional growth.
This care for his employees can be evidenced in the fact that Bezos personally picked up Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter who had been unjustly imprisoned in Iran for 18 months, when he was finally released. Bezos stated that they (the company) would never abandon anybody.
Regarding communication among employees, Bezos’ opinion is clear: communication is terrible. Before judging this statement, it is only fair to explain that Amazon’s CEO refers to communication among large groups. He encourages a famous policy known as the “Two-Pizza Team”, according to which any group that cannot be fed with only two pizzas is, evidently, too large. Choi interprets this policy, and explains that small teams allow for more effective communication, for decentralization and fast-moving as well as encourage innovation and autonomy. Bezos hopes for independent-thinking to prevail over group-thinking, which is in fact a smart communication principle, as smaller teams promote improved team integration, agility, easier team oversight, direct peer accountability and, in consequence, higher productivity.
Jeff Bezos’ vision for his companies have changed over the years: as he accomplishes a goal, he envisions a new one, always moving forward. Regarding Amazon, Bezos constantly prefers to develop tools instead of procuring them, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS). He also puts his mind to developing more Amazon-signature concepts, such as Amazon Books, Amazon’s personal assistant device “Echo”. Additionally, he intends for Amazon to become the world’s most customer-centric company by strengthening the platform’s functionality and client support, and creating more services aimed towards customer satisfaction, such as the “same-day” delivery service. He even envisions to join the fashion business in upcoming years. Regarding Amazon’s future endeavors, Bezos stated in an interview with Rose that “We like to pioneer, we like to explore, we like to go down dark alleys and see what’s on the other side”. It is difficult to imagine how much bigger Amazon can become, but if past undertakings serve as evidence, there does not appear to be an area in retail that the company will not eventually reach.
As for The Washington Post, Bezos’ main vision is to become “the new paper of record, according to an interview conducted by Hazard. Reaching the print-public as well as the digital-public appears to be a priority, as much effort has been given to developing strategies to increase The Post’s web traffic. Moreover, policies that combine the strength of Bezos’ Amazon with the paper are used to increase subscriptions, as a six-month free trial is given to those who create an Amazon Prime account.
Lastly, for another one of his most important companies, Blue Origin, Bezos’ vision is strong: to eventually provide the opportunity for regular citizens to visit space. The founder intends to join a space trip himself around the year 2018. With this intent, Bezos has consistently funded the company’s research projects and operation costs, with clear understanding of the high-risk and low-return industry to which the company belongs.
Jeff Bezos’ impact on these companies has been paramount to their development, especially in the case of Amazon. The latter was started from scratch by Bezos, who stepped away from his stable job in order to pursue this idea. In its early days, Amazon delivery system consisted of Bezos taking packaged to the post office himself. Had it not been for the man’s perseverance, confidence in the project and leadership skills, the retail-monster would not likely exist as it is known today.
For The Washington Post, being purchased by Bezos in 2013 resulting in the triplication of its online traffic, in no small part thanks to his investments and innovative strategies which led to the launch of several digital products that position the paper against its competitors. Moreover, the Post’s work force has significantly increased during Bezos’ administration, promoting the execution of serious journalism. Similarly, Blue Origin owes all its developments to Bezos, who has faithfully invested in the company with the objective of achieving the vision of flying people to the edge of space.
The article, as well as the complementary research conducted to write this paper, provided insights on Jeff Bezos’ personality, business tactics but, most of all, his leadership style. As stated in the beginning of this paper, it is not his companies’ huge success that define him as leader, but after carefully analyzing the article and other sources it can be unequivocally stated that Jeff Bezos is, in fact, one of the greatest leaders of modern times.
I can conclude that his transformational leadership style, which promotes creativity among his followers and motivates them to work towards fulfilling his vision, along with his tenacious nature that encourages competitiveness, has allowed his employers to relate themselves with company values and seek innovation through bright, efficiently-implemented ideas.
References
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