Amazon Walks the Walk
A few years back I was feeling stuck. The cloud was everywhere. So I went and got an AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification. As I was leaving the testing center that afternoon, I asked a member of the staff if they validated parking. He smiled and said, “We validate for state exams, but not Amazon. We asked and they said that doesn’t align with their leadership principles.” Be frugal.
It got me thinking. Does anyone walks the walk quite like Amazon?
I was once told by a CEO that his company had grown too big to maintain its startup culture. As though it was a foregone conclusion. The truth is it requires everyone working on it every day. You’ve got to want it. It doesn’t stand a chance when forced to compete with other priorities.
Amazon didn’t just post its Leadership Principles and go back to work. Today, its LPs permeate every level of the organization to a near fanatical degree, from job interviews to strategic decision making.
Many companies talk the talk, but too often it seems to wind up as nothing more than paying lip service to the latest trending cause. It’s hard to not be cynical with a new breaking story of misleading or wrongdoing sucking the air out of the interwebs each week.
Free parking is nice, but I’m much happier with what I was reminded of principles and leading by example.