Working Backwards
Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon
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Narrated by:
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Bill Carr
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Colin Bryar
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Robert Petkoff
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Written by:
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Colin Bryar
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Bill Carr
About this listen
This program includes a preface read by the authors.
Working Backwards is an insider's breakdown of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and best practices from two longtime, top-level Amazon executives.
Colin started at Amazon in 1998; Bill joined in 1999. In Working Backwards, these two long-serving Amazon executives reveal and codify the principles and practices that drive the success of one of the most extraordinary companies the world has ever known. With 27 years of Amazon experience between them, much of it in the early aughts - a period of unmatched innovation that brought products and services including Kindle, Amazon Prime, Amazon Studios, and Amazon Web Services to life - Bryar and Carr offer unprecedented access to the Amazon way as it was refined, articulated, and proven to be repeatable, scalable, and adaptable.
With keen analysis and practical steps for applying it at your own company - no matter the size - the authors illuminate how Amazon’s 14 leadership principles inform decision-making at all levels and reveal how the company’s culture has been defined by four characteristics: customer obsession, long-term thinking, eagerness to invent, and operational excellence. Bryar and Carr explain the set of ground-level practices that ensure these are translated into action and flow through all aspects of the business.
Working Backwards is a practical guidebook and a corporate narrative, filled with the authors’ in-the-room recollections of what “Being Amazonian” is like and how it has affected their personal and professional lives. They demonstrate that success on Amazon’s scale is not achieved by the genius of any single leader, but rather through commitment to and execution of a set of well-defined, rigorously executed principles and practices - shared here for the very first time.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 Colin Bryar and Bill Carr (P)2021 Macmillan AudioYou may also enjoy...
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What the critics say
"Jeff Bezos once told me that unlike Google or Apple, 'Amazon doesn't have one big advantage, so we have to braid a rope out of many small advantages'. Amazon has demonstrated again and again that success doesn't result from one big stroke of genius but from a set of clear business practices consistently and boldly applied. Colin Bryar and Bill Carr dive deep into how Amazon has become the company to study if you want to succeed in 21st-century business." (Tim O'Reilly, owner of O'Reilly Media)
"For those looking to change the world in ways (very) large and small via innovation and business, my strong recommendation is to dive deeply into Working Backwards. Bill and Colin have delivered a rarity of immense value, which is a powerful, high judgment dissection of the inputs to Amazon itself. I anticipate Working Backwards to quickly become required reading in board rooms and classrooms around the world." (Jason Kilar, chief executive officer of WarnerMedia)
“Colin Bryar and Bill Carr have operationalized the core management practices that lie behind Amazon's success. In particular, their insights into how any successful leader can focus on narrative and metrics to take a short-cut to the truth are essential for any leader in any industry. You'll want to have your highlighter ready and keep this book close at hand for quick reference." (Kim Scott, author of Radical Candor)
What listeners say about Working Backwards
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- Kambiz
- 2023-11-11
Great inside look into a great company
Many creative ideas put into practice and described in tangible details in this book. A must read for anyone at a tech company.
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- Shabnam sharif
- 2021-02-22
inspiring story to read
loved it❤
as a product manager, Id die to work in such a company like Amazon with this level of innovation 💡and the experience which can be gained throughout the release of each feature/product
my sincere appreciation goes to the authors, you guys did a magnificent job writing this book👌
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