The purpose of this course is to give a high-level introduction to Amazon’s innovation culture, mechanisms and tools.

Uncover the company culture pillars and the innovation engine that transformed Amazon from a small online bookstore into a trillion-dollar powerhouse. Gain insights into how Amazon creates and launches groundbreaking services like Amazon Prime, Kindle, AWS, and Amazon GO Store.

Through practical examples and real-life anecdotes, the participants will be guided through

• how Amazon’s mental models create and shape its company culture (leadership principles and mission statements)
• how this culture enables high velocity experimentation by empowering employees’ ideation and risk taking (Invent & Simplify, Ownership, Bias for Action)
• what prerequisite mechanisms, tools and organizational structures evolved over the past 25+ years (Working Backwards, narrative culture, 2-pizza teams)
• how does talent recruitment and development support Amazon’s culture (interviewing insights from a former Amazon Bar Raiser)

1. Fundamentals of Amazon’s company culture
2. 1.  How do Amazon’ mental models and mission statements create a “Day 1” mentality, a culture of ownership and innovation for employees
   2. Anecdotes and examples of how these high-level principles translated into everyday actions
   3. The perception about failure and how it can progress a career inside Amazon
3. Mechanisms and tools
4. 1. a. Examples for mechanisms inside Amazon – the ultimate tools for enabling Amazon scaling from a garage company to a trillion-dollar giant.
   2. b. Amazon’s narrative culture – reasons for not using presentations internally
   3. c. Working Backwards and the PRFAQ
   4. d. Self-service tools without gatekeepers – the role of cloud computing and internal automation tools
5. Organisation, talent recruitment and development
6. 1. 2-pizza teams to create thousands of mini-startups and selecting the ones with the highest potential
   2. Hiring and developing for culture – talent recruitment insights from a former Amazon Bar Raiser
7. Comparing Amazon to other innovation powerhouses, e.g. Netflix, Google, Tesla, etc.

By the end of the course the learners will have a high-level overview of the mental models, tools and mechanisms enabling and shaping the company culture of a successful global corporation.

Classroom training supported with online knowledge summary, refresh and testing