amazonmanifesto

Amazon’s official 14 leadership principles start off with a call to obsess about the customer. But what about obsessing about the employee?

That’s #2 on an alternative list of seven leadership principles published this weekend by the same anonymous Amazon employee responsible for the earlier “Amazonian Manifesto.” It’s the latest reaction to the widely read New York Times exposé about the Seattle company’s workplace culture, and a sign that the fallout for the company is continuing, two weeks after the publication of that piece.

The new post by the “Concerned Amazonian” indicates that others have joined the employee in the initiative.

It begins, “We, the authors of The Amazonian Manifesto, submit the following seven principles of leadership as the embodiment of what it truly means to be an Amazonian. These principles are inspired by, and based on, the current official Amazon leadership principles, but they also articulate new dimensions and important values whose absence from the current principles has created an unhealthy and unsustainable working environment.”

The alternative principles begin with the same call to “Obsess about the Customer” as in the traditional Amazon principles.

But under the new principle of “Obsess about the Employee,” they write, “Leaders understand that customer obsession doesn’t just happen.  Leaders know that ensuring that an employee loves coming to work every day is the BEST guarantee that customer obsession will happen, and happen every day. It is employees who obsess about customers, not cold processes or tyrannical executives.  If an employee decides not to obsess about a customer, no matter how elaborate the processes or how severe and scrutinizing management, customer obsession will not happen.”

The principles seek to balance Amazon’s tendency to obsess about the customer at the expense of all others. Alternative principle #3, for example, is “Obsess about the Partner: “Leaders understand that Amazon’s backbone for growth is its ecosystem of partners.  Without its partners, Amazon would deliver a feeble shadow of the value it delivers today.  Leaders understand that partners are customers too and therefore deserve as much care and solicitude as any end customer does.”

In other cases, the alternative principles supplement Amazon’s existing principles in a way that seeks to ensure they’re applied in the spirit they were creative. For example, “Ownership” in the official principles becomes “Own and Fix” in the alternative principles.

This alternative “Own and Fix” principle starts off the same as the official principle: “Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say “that’s not my job.’ ” But then the alternative version continues, “And above all, they own their failures and work hard to correct them.  Leaders are loathe to hide behind thick concepts such as ‘cultural fit’ or ‘peculiar ways.’  Leaders want to get to the bottom of what is not working and they make it their priority to fix and learn, not obfuscate, blame and move on.”

In the same way, the final alternative principle, “Deliver Results,” starts off with the official principle: “Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.”

But then it adds, “They Think Big, Insist on the Highest Standards, are Biased for Action, and love to Dive Deep. They have a solid Back Bone and they are not afraid to disagree.  They point out what doesn’t work, advocate for what they believe is right, are not easily cowed by the titled and the powerful. They believe in the strength of their principles and the integrity of their data and their thinking and back down only when they have been convinced that theirs isn’t the better way.  But as soon as they realize that they are wrong, they will admit their error and are Vocally Self Critical. Because of their intellectual courage and principled commitment to the best, they are Right a Lot and thereby Own the Trust of Others.”

The full seven alternative principles are published here. In a message to GeekWire, the employee says they “will be distributing flyers on the Amazon campus in Seattle this coming week. Stay tuned.” We asked this morning if the employee plans to go public with his or her identity as part of this process, and haven’t yet heard back.

The New York Times piece included stories of a brutal workplace culture, including employees who were mistreated upon returning from parental leave and serious illness. It drew pointed rebuttals from Amazonians including Jeff Bezos himself, who said he didn’t recognize the Amazon portrayed in the piece, but the themes were reinforced in a post last week by a former Amazon employee who battled cancer and gave birth while working for the Seattle-based company.

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