Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon

Many a book has been written about Amazon, indeed many a book has been read by me about Amazon. Many a book try (and often fail) to provide something new rather than regurgitate previous musings.Working Backwards is, however, different in that the authors are two 'Amazonians' of relatively significant tenure describing relevant business practices that can be implemented to improve efficiency, increasing the chance of sustainable business growth.A large part of what is presented can be argued as common sense. However, where Amazon has been different (and owes it's success to) is its ability to break from the comfort of convention when things arent working.For example, meetings taking too long due to hundreds of slides being read verbatim? Rather than say "we should do something different next time", and (fast forward 6 months) nothing being done, Amazon just banned PowerPoint outright.Due to corporate worry of failure (despite the ability to learn from it), few businesses will (and should) copy all of Amazon's approaches blindly. After all, if you copy someone, you're already five steps behind.However, that should not stop you from picking up a copy and trying something new.

This book is a insight into the culture of Amazon and how that, in the authors' opinion, has driven their success. In that respect, the book is a success: the way Amazon is organised and the principles it is built on is very interesting. However, I found the book very one-sided.The book is an endless veneration of Amazon. Amazon, its employees, and especially Bezos are worshipped. Mistakes Amazon made are only mentioned to show how Amazon used them to improve their process. There's no mention of issues that Amazon had and continues to have problems with, such as user interfaces, as anyone who has tried to navigate the categories on the website or used the AWS console can testify.The authors don't consider the harm that Amazon might be doing. They approvingly recount how an employee was forced to turn her car around and cancel her weekend based on a snap decision of a higher-up, with no consideration of the damage this might have done to her health or family life.Supposedly Amazon is hugely customer-obsessed and strives desperately to "delight" their customers. This is hard to square with my experience of trying to get Alexa to respect my settings or Amazon Fire stick to stop autoplaying or showing me ads. The picture the book paints seems quite different to reality.

Very much enjoying this book - useful stuff for any business.However, there's a problem with reading it on my e-ink Kindle. Some sections (probably 'boxes' in the print edition) have text so light its close to impossible to read on my Kindle. Massive obvious irony in this situation - and I have not yet reached the 'Kindle' chapter.Hope Amazon, or the authors can do something to fix this.Yes, my Kindle is a very early version - I'm pleased it has lasted so well and continues to work and I still prefer not to read long content on a back-lit screen.

Feel like I’ve received an used book

Amazon implemented these processes well, but let’s not assume they invented them. Rediscovered maybe, read industry reports and iterated, definitely.The book made me laugh though, the author travelled 2.5 miles every night to support the business in the holiday period. Like a 5 minute car journey is a notable chore.

As a former Amazonian, most of this book is familiar to me. There's some new stories and angles, but much is familiar. It's well written and great to see such a repository of useful information. Would have been useful while I was there :-)For non Amazonians, it's incredibly useful if you can get past the "Amazonian" thing. Adopting these practices will be valuable for any company, but I suspect many will resist as being "good for Amazon but not for us". I hope more can see beyond this superficial resistance.

Picked up many different techniques I will be absolutely deploying into my business.I’ve recommended to many! Thank you

Very potent examples of how Amazon was able to grow so fast in new directions. The working backwards method is eye opening, and expertly narrated. A must read for all business aficionados