After they explain this, the authors switch modes to argue that you, too, may apply these methods to your company. The first goal is an exercise in justification: the authors will explain how a technique originated in Amazon, and then use that as an explanation for how the company is able to achieve certain unique results. Second, it argues that you may apply these techniques to your own company. Working Backwards has two goals: first, it attempts to explain how Amazon does what it does. The two authors are as Amazonian as they come. Carr was in the front-lines when Amazon launched the Kindle, the Fire tablet, the Fire TV, Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, Amazon Studios, the Echo speaker, and the underlying Alexa voice assistant technology. (The first ‘shadow’ was Andy Jassy, who moved on to become CEO of AWS, and is now Bezos’s successor.) Bill Carr started out as a product manager in video (VHS and DVD) and eventually moved upwards to help start Amazon’s digital businesses. Colin Bryar worked as Jeff Bezos’s ‘shadow’ - a highly coveted position that is Amazon’s equivalent of a chief of staff. Working Backwards was written by two Amazon insiders. Meanwhile, we have been at this for more than 30 years, and we still haven’t mastered our core business.” They are able to build and win in so many different businesses from retail, to AWS, to digital media. As the CEO of a Fortune 100 company complains (retold by Bill Carr in the book): “I don’t understand how Amazon does it. Read more about book classifications here.Īmazon is a fascinating company, for about the same reason that Koch Industries is a fascinating company: most American companies are good at doing ‘one’ thing, but Amazon and Koch Industries are good at doing a great many things.īy this I mean that both Amazon and Koch are able to enter, invent, and then dominate many disparate industries. You should buy the book and read it - the stories that the authors tell about the origins of each technique are absolutely critical if you want to apply them do not rely on this summary alone. This is not a comprehensive summary tree books don’t lend themselves to easy summarisation.

Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon is the first book that explains how Amazon really works, written by two insiders who were there when the techniques were invented. This is a summary of a great 🌳 tree book.

Amazon book working backwards