What Can We Learn From Amazon？

When Amazon first went public in 1997, its stock price was just $18 per share. Now the stock price has gone up to $2,647 per share as of 10 June 2020. That is more than 146% growth. Amazon became the second company after Apple to hit $1 trillion in market value in 2018. The founder and CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world with a net worth of $147 billion in 2020¹. From the humble beginnings to global domination, there are some lessons that we can learn from Amazon.

Have long-term thinking. Amazon Web Service business was launched 14 years ago. But Amazon Web Service just started generating a major company’s operating income since 2016. Amazon didn’t give up o -things easily.  Another example of Amazon’s long-term thinking is Amazon Prime that was launched in 2005.  In the beginning, people wondered how the company would make the $79 annual membership fee attract customers. A few years later, Amazon Prime memberships started growing. As of 2019, there are 150 million Amazon Prime members worldwide². A focus on the long-term is very important to businesses or individuals.  A long-term approach allows the company to grow through experimentation and to accept short-term failures. If a company doesn’t know where to go, then the company might end up going somewhere else. Another benefit of having long-term thinking is helping to increase market share and profitability as it aligns with customer and shareholder interests. As an individual, we should line in the present, however being too caught up in the present without thinking about the future, might lead to an uncertain future. Therefore, it is important to spend more time thinking about the future and be a long-term tinker even it requires to make sacrifices today.

Accept and learn from criticism. Amazon has drawn criticism from many sources. When Amazon was launched in 1994, Jeff Bezos faced massive competition from larger retailers such as Barnes & Noble³. When it comes to criticism, Jeff Bezos says that there are two kinds of critics, and that the key is always to "look in a mirror and decide, are your critics right? If they're right, change. Don't resist." He learned to embrace criticism. Criticism not only helps the company to get a view from an outsider, but also helps with innovation with the products and services. The feedback from customers plays a critical role in adapting, improving and growing the business. Accepting criticism is one of the hardest most important skills to learn. Criticism helps people to hear a new perspective. When a trusted employee or a loyal friend criticizes us, we should not take criticism personally; however, we should take this opportunity to see if we could learn from it to improve ourselves. Criticism can really help all of us succeed in the workplace and in life.

Do you have anything that you have learnt from Amazon? Please leave your comment below.

 Reference:

¹Ponciano, J. (2020, May 23). The World’s 25 Richest Billionaires Have Gained Nearly $255 Billion In Just Two Months. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2020/05/22/billionaires-zuckerberg-bezos/#35e29c4d7ed6

²Clement, J. (2020, May 8). Amazon Prime - Statistics & Facts. Statista. Retrieved from https://www-statista-com.library.sheridanc.on.ca/topics/4076/amazon-prime/

3Bhardwaj, P. (2018, May 1). The Jeff Bezos approach to handling criticism is a good rule everyone should follow. Business Insider. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/how-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-handles-criticism-2018-4