Steve Anderson, author of The Bezos Letters – 14 Principles to Grow Your Business Like Amazon
Bill Ringle and Steve Anderson discuss new insights that small business leaders and managers can use based on Amazon’s stunning growth.
>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.
Interview Insights
Top 3 Takeaways from this Interview
- If we are willing to experiment, we should also be willing to fail, and from this failure, we take what we learn and build from it.
- Business longevity relies heavily on customer satisfaction.
- Fixing the problem is a band-aid solution. For it not to be a repeated issue, leaders should target the cause of the problem, and fix it from the root.
Read the Show Note from this Episode
- Steve Anderson’s father was a huge inspiration to him growing up. [01:00]
- On his first job working in the United States Postal service, taught him that not everyone has the same standard of what a good job is. [02:54]
- Bezos left Wall Street to start his own business because he does not want to regret not trying to pursue his dreams. [05:01]
- Books came up on the top when Bezos was thinking of products to sell on Amazon because the internet has unlimited shelf space. [05:40]
- Other than the undeniable value of customer obsession, Amazon also values hiring employees that can implement its standards. [07:05]
- One of Bezos’ core ideas is testing and experimenting, in fact, he talked about this in multiple letters, stressing out the importance of experimenting. [08:05]
- Amazon Prime is an example of a great successful experiment by Bezos and his team. [09:24]
- Bezos believes that what is better for the customer is also what is better for Amazon. [11:31]
- Steve discuss about Amazon’s ‘obsessing over customers’ and how this principle propels the company forward. [18;27]
- What separates Amazon from other companies is that it encourages employees to come up with ideas and experiment. [26:39]
- Part of Amazon’s process management when dealing with a mistake is not fixing the problem, but fixing the cause of the problem. [30:51]
- Steve breaks down his goals into three separate groups:quarterly, weekly, and daily. [34:11]
- My Quest for the Best Lightning Round begins [45:30]
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Expert Bio
Steve Anderson is an expert in strategic risk and business growth. Drawing on decades of experience in the insurance industry, he wrote The Bezos Letters: 14 Principles to Grow Your Business Like Amazon, which has become a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and international bestseller. With hundreds of thousands of followers, Steve has been handpicked by LinkedIn as one of the world’s most influential thought leaders.
Contact Info and Social Media for John Knights
Resources Mentioned During the Interview
Below are key people, places, books, quotes, websites, and other resources that we discussed so you can explore further.
Books Authored by Steve Anderson
