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7 Je Bezos Quotes That WillChange The Way You Think AboutBusiness

Jessica Stillman, Inc.May 8, 2014, 9:53 AM

Strategy

20,7662

Ted S. Warren/APJe BezosNo one can accuse Je Bezos of thinking small or falling prey toconvention. The man who dared to build the everything store has afamously idiosyncratic approach to business.From the big things like largely ignoring prots(and mostly getting awaywith it) to small ones like starting meetings with some communal reading,the Amazon.com founder doesn't do things the usual way.What's the thinking behind his quirky ways and what can you learn from theBezos approach to business that might change how things are done at yourown company?Recently on his blog current Microsoft employee and former private equityfund partner Tren Grin suggested you go straight to the source, helpfullycombing through Bezos' public utterances for valuable nuggets of wisdom.Inc.com reached out to ask if we could round up a few of the quotes heunearthed. Here's a sampling:"Your margin is my opportunity."As Grin explains "Bezos sees a competitor's love of margins and other

nancial 'ratios' as an opportunity for Amazon since the competitor willcling to them while he focuses on absolute dollar free cash ow and slicesthrough them like a hot knife through butter.""Bezos spelled out his focus on absolute dollar free cash ow in his 2004letter to shareholders. He is not about to run his company based on a ratiomuch beloved by someone outside the company, such as a Wall Streetanalyst," Grin elaborates. Are you looking focused on the right numbersfor your business or are you more worried about hitting metrics thatsomeone else told you matter?"The balance of power is shifting toward consumers and away fromcompanies The right way to respond to this if you are a company is toput the vast majority of your energy, attention, and dollars into building agreat product or service and put a smaller amount into shouting about it,marketing it.""In the old world, you devoted 30% of your time to building a great serviceand 70% of your time to shouting about it. In the new world, that inverts,"Bezos continued. Are you too focused on how you talk about your businessand not on what it actually does? "The very best businesses acquirecustomers 'organically' without advertising. Great products and word ofmouth drives sales at these companies. By contrast, companies which mustsell their wares with huge advertising budgets are losing their edge in theInternet era," comments Grin."If you double the number of experiments you do per year you're going todouble your inventiveness."Perhaps increasing your innovation quotient is simpler than it rst appears.Simply try more things. Based on this quote, that appears to be theAmazon approach."If you decide that you're going to do only the things you know are goingto work, you're going to leave a lot of opportunity on the table."This point is obviously related to the one above. Experiments, by denition,can fail. Avoid failure to spare your ego and you cut down on the number ofexperiments, and it's often a bigger problem to fail to experiment than it isto experiment and fail. According to Grin,"Warren Buett puts it thisway: 'Typically, our most egregious mistakes fall in the omission, ratherthan the commission, category. That may spare Charlie [Munger] and mesome embarrassment, since you don't see these errors; but their invisibilitydoes not reduce their cost.'""You have to be willing to be misunderstood if you're going to innovate."OK, it's not only Bezos who says innovation can be lonely, but he certainlyexemplies the principle. "You can't outperform the market if you are the

market. Similarly, you must adopt a non-consensus view and be right aboutthat view to beat competitors," Grin says."Frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the onlyways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out."Do you spend your days dreaming of a time a ood of money will scouraway your business's problems? Your daydreams may be misguided. "Moremoney often equals more problems. Companies with too much money areoften less rather than more innovative," notes Grin. It can, of course, behard to learn to love your constraints, but this quote suggests there arebenets to be found in doing so."The great thing about fact-based decisions is that they overrule thehierarchy."Many companies make choices based on the seniority or charisma of thosearguing the various points of view. Not at Amazon. Could your companybenet from trying a more fact-based approach?Disclosure: Je Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos Expeditions.This post originally appeared at Inc.. Copyright 2014. Follow Inc. onTwitter.

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