“What would you ask for if you were given one free wish?” Ok, I knew this wasn't going to be one of those standard speeches where the speaker orderly introduces themselves and gets straight into their presentation. “Sure, you could ask for a new car or a house etc. But why not ask for more free wishes? That’s what we do at Amazon. That’s what Amazon is all about.” It was clear from the mere seconds that i'd listened to that Amazon aims to go above and beyond in everything they do, including it appears - their on-stage educational presentations.


 

Attending the Amazon Business Seminar

On May 14th 2019 I attended the Amazon presentation at the Sofia Webit Festival where Amazon Vice President Paul Misener delivered a concise but stimulating talk entitled “Innovation at Amazon”. The Webit Festival ran across 3 days but this segment was one I so eagerly wanted to see! Love it or hate it, Amazon has changed the way we shop. Their wealth of products, low costs, and fast delivery make online shopping much more convenient. Obviously, as a small business owner I see the disadvantages to this. But let’s not forget that Amazon is a globally recognised business and leads the way for e-commerce businesses, so they must be doing something right. I was interested in learning more about their strategies and attitudes towards business and common issues that business owners suffer.
 

Amazon Business Tips from Vice President Paul Misener

Paul Misener of Amazon talked about dealing with failure and adopting a healthy approach to competition. The Amazon vice president also shared their number one strategy when launching a new product and the way in which they keep themselves accountable. It was interesting yet bizarre to hear the vice president of Amazon talking about coping with failure, competition and accountability. Usually we small business owners believe that huge businesses like Amazon are exempt from these humble habits. But they’re not. Instead, Paul Misener shared an inside look into Amazon’s coping mechanisms for these common business issues. By focusing on their own customers and their own business, they steer away from competition and reduce their risk of public failure. I used to always think that a business like Amazon would have a very complex business strategy that’s extremely complicated, but actually their plan of action is easy for any of us to implement.
 
 

Amazon’s Business Success Strategy that You Can Apply to Your Business

• The Amazon team remain accountable by writing a press release, detailing the final product they wish to launch way before they even figure out how to create it.
• After the press release is written, Amazon uses this as the end point and works backwards. This allows the team to understand what they must do and what steps they need to take in order to get to their end point.
• The press release is written months or even years before the product is launched, but it gives the team something to refer back to.
• In the press release, they list all of the benefits for the client. It’s great for your own credibility to list all the technical details but what the customer really wants to know is what they are getting from it. How does it make their life better? Amazon is always thinking of what their customer wants.
• You must fully understand what your product or service is about in order to be able to describe it properly. If you can’t quickly summarise what you do then you have to question whether you fully understand it.
• “Don’t obsess over the competition, obsess over the customer.” This one needs no explaining.
• Amazon says: “don’t fear failure.” Amazon admits to making many failures, but the worst failures are those where the customer is involved. The fails that occur behind closed doors are easy to forget about, but they really feel that they fail when they fail their customers.
• Before releasing your finished product to your client, try to purposely make it fail. This goes against everything that comes natural to you as a human but it must be done. It’s actually not a fail if you get the product to fail during this time because it gives you the opportunity to correct it. The idea is to exhaust your attempts of getting your product to fail so that hopefully, you present a quality product to your customers.
• Innovate before it’s too late. Don’t wait until you need to create something new in order to bring in more income and keep your business alive. The reason Amazon is successful is because they are always “doing”, they are always innovating and thinking about the next thing they can create and offer to their audience.
• “Business has no caps on success.” Creativity and talent is distributed all over the world. Absolutely anybody can create the business of their dreams and grow it as much as they want. All you need is passion and a strategy.

 

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