Lessons Learned from Amazon | Nimbleness, Innovation and Leadership in Responding to COVID-19

“Crises have a way of accelerating the inevitable,” starts a Wall Street Journal article titled “The Future Comes Early for Grocers,” and this insight is applicable across the board. The current public health crisis is exposing which companies and leaders are nimble, flexible and able to adjust in the short term and which will likely grow over the long term as a result. It is also exposing which companies are rigid.

No company demonstrates nimbleness better than Amazon.

In short order, Amazon has been able to make decisions and adjustments, flex with the needs of the market, and will likely find new businesses and opportunities from the crisis that outweigh any short-term negative business impacts. And this doesn’t happen by accident. It’s because Amazon is built this way – built for decisiveness; built for nimbleness; built to adjust and scale. The Amazon leadership principles play a key role in building this culture. What can we learn to apply into our own practices?

How do we as business leaders adapt to the short term and plan for the long term? The answer is to “think like Amazon” and build a culture and operating systems designed for moments like this. Leveraging ideas from his best-selling book Think Like Amazon, John Rossman will discuss several aspects of the field that will likely change and leave audiences with strategies, tools and questions to help create this future.

Think Like Amazon about — The Future of Your Industry

What is the future of your industry? It is a question that leaders must ask themselves often. But what are the right questions to ask, what metrics should be used, how is our industry going to be disrupted? All of these questions will be answered by former Amazon Executive John Rossman. John launched and scaled their third-party platform which today accounts for over 50% of Amazon’s business. By leveraging many of the ideas from Think Like Amazon, Rossman will propose several aspects of your industry that will likely change and leave audiences with strategies, tools, and questions to help create this future.

Working Backwards -- The Amazon Way

What is working backward and why is it some important at Amazon? The process of working backward colors everything that Amazon does and includes important principles like customer obsession think big, and “learn and be curious”. It has techniques like writing a future press release, narratives, and FAQs. It demonstrates how Amazon is consistently able to successfully scale and operate at a high level. Best Selling Author and Former Amazon Executive will discuss the principles and practices that have made Amazon’s Way of doing business so successful. He will also show how your organization can apply the same thinking to achieve great success and market share as he has modeled at other organizations like the Gates Foundation, T-Mobile, and Nordstrom.

Leadership and Strategies for Post-Pandemic Business Leaders – The Amazon Way”

How do we adjust and change our playbook for a post-pandemic era? The future has accelerated – how do leaders and strategies need to change along with it? Leveraging the Amazon leadership principles, hear from former Amazon executive and business strategist John Rossman the tangible principles and techniques behind the principles to compete in the post-pandemic era.

Think Like Amazon about — Strategy and Corporate Culture

Amazon is a fierce competitor, a systematic innovator and creating a dramatic change in many industries. How does Amazon think about and create the playbook of strategy, operational excellence, and innovation? What can you learn from them and apply them into your business? In John Rossman’s signature leadership keynote, he will reveal and unpack the secrets of Amazon’s unparalleled growth and how the company’s culture has driven innovation and growth. From Think Like Amazon: 50 ½ Ideas to Become a Digital Leader, audiences are leaning forward, taking notes and inspired with strategies and tools to innovate and lead.

Think Like Amazon about- Innovation

Leaders at Amazon expect and require innovation and invention from their teams. They are externally aware and look for new ideas everywhere. Amazon has a thrilling power to innovate that few other companies have matched. But how does Amazon continue to innovate and outperform the competition? Through a systematic approach and a deep understanding of what it means to be digital, Amazon has created a culture and system that continues to outperform everyone else. Former Amazon executive turned digital strategy consultant John Rossman will leverage ideas from his book “Think Like Amazon” to show how all companies and organizations are capable of innovating at the same level as Amazon.

The Amazon Way™ on IOT

From John Rossman’s book The Amazon Way™: 10 Lessons Every Leader Should Learn from Amazon’s IoT Strategy, the former Amazon executive unpacks how connected devices will transform industries and businesses, and what leaders should do to take advantage. Rossman will look at how connected devices will revolutionize how business is done and change the marketplace. This speech will give leaders from all types of businesses a blueprint on how to leverage connected devices for the future of their business.