Amazon’s culture of high standards

Amazon’s meteoric growth over the past two decades can likely be attributed to its CEO Jeff Bezos and his culture of consistently high standards, according to Forbes.

In fact, his most recent annual letter to shareholders centered around his ideas about how he thinks companies should be run and how he lives his life. He believes that these standards are contagious and that bringing a lot of high performers together will create a self-sustaining effect that quickly spreads to new hires. Meanwhile, the opposite is true, and companies with cultures of low performance will have a difficult time changing.

Honesty with one’s self is a big part of his next two ideas: eliminating blind spots and recognizing how hard a project is likely to be. During the early years, he admitted that he was not good at finding problems in the process, eliminating defects, and keeping issues fixed for the long-term. Asking for help and learning from his colleagues allowed him to correct his deficiencies instead of pridefully ignoring them.

Similarly, when a person underestimates the difficulty of an obstacle ahead, they are more likely to give up early than to succeed in the future. An accurate assessment of the task at hand means that the right assets will be used to tackle it and the timeframe will be realistic.

His last point brings his company’s performance around full circle by emphasizing his ‘Day 1’ mentality. He continually reminds himself why he initially started Amazon and uses that focus to stay disciplined every day. He firmly believes that it is easy to be satisfied, but greatness requires a person to handle risk and remain hungry for more.