Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sends letters to shareholders every year. This letter contains Amazon’s current achievements and future vision. He also enclose that the first letter he sent in 1997 with the intention of not losing his first intention.
In a letter from Jeff Bezos in 2017, he explain the principles of leadership about the high standard of amazon.
It is a great opportunity if the customer feels dissatisfied. People want to be more efficient wherever and everywhere. Yesterday’s innovation is today’s ordinary.
The cycle of change is moving faster than ever as customers have more access to more information. With just a few touches of your smartphone, you can read product reviews in a few seconds, compare the prices of several companies, check out items in stock, delivery times, and availability of pickups.
This change is not limited to the retail business. Customer influence and power are growing in all businesses and all industries.
There is no easy way to meet ever-increasing customer expectations. You must use a variety of methods together. The most important of these is the pursuit of high standards in all areas.
High standards are not innate factors. High standards are the elements you can learn.
In fact, high standards can be easily learned when exposed to the right environment. For example, if you put a new person on a team that has a high standard, the person quickly adapts to it even though he has not a high standard.
In other words, a high standard is a highly contagious element.
If, on the other hand, there is a widespread culture of applying low standards, this kind of atmosphere quickly spreads throughout the team or company.
It is certain that experience in a high-standard environment will help. You can learn faster, especially if you understand some key principles related to high standards.
Will those who have high standards automatically set high standards in other areas? Jeff Bezos says that the high standards should be applied differently in different disciplines.
In other words, if you are not in your field, you have to learn how to achieve high standards for that field.
You can think of yourself as an excellent person in every field, but there is always something short of it. Or there may be areas where you do not even know that the level is very low or there is no standard itself.
Even if you think you are superior, you have to accept this possibility with open mind.
To achieve a high standard, we must first be able to identify what is good enough to meet the high standards in the field. In other words, you have to be able to see what is great point and good point.
Second, we must develop a realistic sense of predicting the scope of work and work required to establish high standards.
A hand-standing is a good example. Many people think that if they try, they will be able to do a hand-standing in two weeks. However, in reality, six months of practice must be practiced every day for a while.
If you think you can do it in two weeks, you are likely to give up.
If you can not realistically predict the amount of time and effort that will be required to achieve a goal, you will not be able to establish a standard.
Whether you are an individual or a team member, you must realistically predict the scope and workload you need to establish high standards. In order to do this, we need to discuss with related parties in advance.
A soccer coach does not necessarily have to deal with the ball well like a player, and a film coach does not have to be good at acting like a actor. However, the bishop must be aware of the high standards of what is good shooting or what is good acting.
They also need to be able to tell realistic ranges of how much effort and time is required to meet high standards.
It is true that there must be a team member with the necessary skills, but not all team members need to have great capabilities.
If your company pursues high standards, you can provide better products and services to your customers. In addition, employment preference increases and employee tenure increases.
In addition, a company that has a culture of raising standards and achieving standards without voluntarily giving praise and encouragement will do even simple and easy things voluntarily.
In other words, if you set a high standard and have a mind to pursue it, you will work with a professional mind and you will have fun.
Higher standards can be trained and applied differently across disciplines. You also need to be able to recognize what is a high standard and to be able to explicitly present realistic workloads to achieve this.
If you apply these four elements properly, you will not be able to apply everything from simple documentation to new business reviews.
Jeff Bezos’s original letter can be read below.
