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amazon

Focus on the Inputs

by Pete Abilla August 17, 2010

In the April 2010 Letter to Shareholders, Jeff Bezos tells Amazon.com shareholders about their focus on inputs, the customer, and their purposeful lack of discussion around financial metrics: Senior leaders that are new to Amazon are often surprised by how little time we spend discussing actual financial results or debating projected financial outputs. To be [...]

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Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon Acquisitions

by Pete Abilla July 6, 2010

This post shows merger and acquisition (M & A) activity of Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Yahoo. I attempt to do this in a nice scrollable javascript timeline. To view google acquisitions, microsoft acquisitions, yahoo acquisitions, or amazon.com acquisitions, please scroll on the timeline and click on the dots; when you do, a bubble will render [...]

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Lean Thinking and the Amazon Kindle

by Pete Abilla December 11, 2009

I receive emails from recruiters – frequently.  So, as a favor to them, I am posting a job for your interest: the hiring company is Amazon.com. Below is one job description and contact information, but if you go to the Amazon.com website, there are over 50 open positions looking for people with experience in Lean [...]

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Goodbye Customer: Loyalty, Costs, Complexity, and Recovery

by Pete Abilla August 22, 2009

Goodbye Customer. That is sometimes what we say, without knowing the full costs and burden that proposition means on the business.  Ironically, businesses are often unaware that their actions are pushing the customer away while at the same time trying to recover and retain them through expensive customer retention programs.  Metaphorically, this is like pushing [...]

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Amazon and Zappos Sitting in a Tree

by Pete Abilla July 22, 2009

As most you know by now, Zappos has entered into a definitive agreement with Amazon.com and will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.  This is exciting and, after speaking with my friends both at Amazon and at Zappos, they are all quite excited too.  Congratulations to Amazon, Zappos, Tony Hsieh, and Jeff Bezos 1  [...]

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The Source of Dirt

by Pete Abilla May 26, 2009

In Amazon’s 2008 letter to shareholders, Jeff Bezos shares about a Kaizen event he participated in: At a fulfillment center recently, one of our Kaizen experts asked me, “I’m in favor of a clean fulfillment center, but why are you cleaning? Why don’t you eliminate the source of dirt?” I’ve spoken numerous times about Bezos [...]

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Jeff Bezos and Root Cause Analysis

by Pete Abilla January 23, 2009

unrelated update: Deconstructing the Apple iPhone Supply Chain I’m always impressed when CEO’s demonstrate Deming-like behavior as they lead; it’s rare, but there’s almost a magical, mobilizing, and inspiring force that happens when CEO’s or corporate leaders behave in a respectful, inspiring, common-sense, and thoughtful way. Today, I’m reminded of an experience back in 2004 [...]

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Not Accountable, Not Responsible

by Pete Abilla August 9, 2008

Team size can make a big difference in the success of your service or product. What is counterintuitive for most people is that the larger the team size, the lower the likelihood of success for your service or product.  Why? Entropy can set in and large teams are inherently bad vehicles for communication. More insipid, [...]

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On Customer Obsession

by Pete Abilla April 15, 2008

I’d venture to say that most products and services are bloated with features that customers most likely don’t care for;  I’ve been part of product development teams where the focus is on features, with an implicit goal to stuffing as many features as possible — in consumer packaged goods and in software.   This is the [...]

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