I recently went one on one with Colin Bryar, co-author (with fellow longtime Amazon executive Bill Carr) of the new book Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon. Colin joined Amazon in 1998 — four years after its founding — and spent the next 12 years as part of Amazon's senior leadership team as Amazon grew from a domestic seller of books to a global, multi-dimensional powerhouse and innovator. Colin served as a Vice President at Amazon, and for two of his years was "Chief of Staff" to Jeff Bezos, during which he spent each day attending meetings, traveling with, and discussing business and life with Jeff. After Amazon, he and his family relocated to Singapore for two years where Colin served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce company RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba. Colin is the co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about both of you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?

Colin: Bill and I both spent over 12 years each at Amazon during a time where the company made the successful transition from a small company to what it is today. In order to make this transition successfully, there are all sorts of technical and organizational challenges that need to be addressed. Amazon has a spirit of invention in its DNA, which means you have to be willing to accept failure too. Failure is a learning experience and an opportunity to improve rather than something to hide. We did stumble and fail a few times and have the scars to prove it. 

Adam: What are your best lessons learned from your years working at Amazon?

Colin: We learned that putting the customer first and never wavering from that conviction is the best way to build a successful company that will be around for the long haul. It’s harder than it sounds because there can be so many distractions along the way. Customer obsession rather than customer focus means you ensure your business processes are built from the ground up with the customer’s interest in mind.  

Adam: What should entrepreneurs and leaders better understand about Amazon?

Colin: One of the common misconceptions we hear from people is that Amazon’s business practices and principles are only applicable to large multinational corporations. In fact, they work just as well in small groups too. For example startups with just a handful of employees can quickly implement Amazon’s Bar Raiser process to hire new employees and immediately start using the Working Backwards process to develop new ideas and products. These Amazon processes were designed to be used in a repeatable manner by small teams. 

Adam: How can entrepreneurs and leaders more successfully collaborate with Amazon?

Colin: By participating in their various self-service platforms such as Fulfillment By Amazon, Amazon Web Services, Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon Marketplace, and Amazon Associates (their affiliate marketing program). Jeff Bezos said in his 2011 letter to shareowners, “When a platform is self-service, even the improbable ideas can get tried, because there’s no expert gatekeeper ready to say ‘that will never work!’ And guess what – many of those improbable ideas do work, and society is the beneficiary of that diversity.” These platforms have changed what was typically a substantial fixed cost for a company into smaller variable costs that only get bigger if the effort is successful. This change has enabled companies to try out new ideas that were not previously possible.  When trying to collaborate with Amazon, using one of the existing partner platforms, many of them self-service, is likely a better route than trying to propose a bespoke business deal. 

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?

1. I find it helps to focus first on “the who” then “the how” and finally “the what” when faced with a business decision. First you need to make sure you have the right people on board in your organization and they are set up for success. Next, focus on how your organization will make decisions. If your idea or mission is successful and gains traction, you won’t be in the room when lots of important choices are made. Therefore, you need to give those decision-makers a common framework and set of principles and processes to follow so their decisions will be the same ones you would have made. Once you have those two things in place, then you can focus on what actions you and the team should take.  

2. Stay true to your roots. If you’ve gotten this far, it’s likely because your instincts were correct. It’s easy to be swayed by what a pundit or the press say you should do next. They likely do not know your customers and market as well as you do.

3. If you have a vision or principle you want your organization to adopt, you probably haven’t communicated enough if you aren’t tired of hearing yourself talk about it.

Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?

Colin: First it’s important to point out that there are many different, effective leadership styles. You need to pick a style that is complementary to who you are. When I was on Amazon’s senior leadership team, I observed several different styles of leadership, yet they were all very capable leaders. Jeff once told me to pick an effective leader who has similar personality traits as you. Then try to learn from and emulate that person. If you try to lead with a style of leadership that isn’t authentic to who you are, you won’t be as effective as you could be. 

A good leader recognizes that they won’t be successful unless their team members are successful. That leader recognizes that different team members need different things from them and acts accordingly.  

Adam: What are your best tips on the topic of culture?

Colin: If you are a small company and the culture is yet to be defined, you’re lucky but need to act fast. Cultures are quick to form and hard to change. As a leader, you can choose whether your culture is a competitive advantage or disadvantage. The top tier CEOs and leaders I’ve observed spend more time communicating and embodying the culture than most. A company culture is the operating system of your company. As the company grows, many more decisions will be made when you are not in the room. A strong culture ensures consistent decision making throughout the company. Really good CEOs seek to carefully document, communicate, and always reinforce the corporate culture.

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams?

Colin: With respect to building teams, make sure you have a deliberate and consistent hiring process. When you grow from 5 to 50 people, if you don’t have a defined, deliberate hiring process, the future of your company will be determined by the individuals who made each hiring decision versus what you as the founder or leader want to happen. For leading and managing teams, we favor creating and promulgating easy to understand principles along with a set of repeatable processes with positive feedback loops. That is, the more they are used, the better the results. 

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

Colin: Don’t rely on good intentions, rely on mechanisms. The problem with relying on good intentions like, “I’ll try harder next time,” is that people generally are already trying hard and trying to do their best. When you are trying to fix a problem in your organization, ask yourself if there is already a mechanism in place to prevent the problem from occurring again.


Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

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