By Lina Irawan 
Herrington’s sentiment was not an isolated one. He recounted telling his wife, "I don’t understand what’s going on," a common reaction among newcomers grappling with Amazon’s unique operating philosophy. Indeed, the perception of Amazon as a "cult" was a recurring theme in its formative period. A seminal 2001 Wired feature, aptly titled "Inside the Cult of Amazon," echoed similar observations, quoting a former employee who claimed workers were "brainwashed" into adoring founder Jeff Bezos and embracing demanding, often 20-hour workdays. This early characterization highlights a period when Amazon was not merely a company but an ideological movement, driven by an almost fanatical dedication to its mission and its visionary leader.
However, Herrington ultimately came to view his initial skepticism not as a deterrent, but as a critical rite of passage—one that profoundly shaped his leadership style and understanding of organizational dynamics. He recognized the strategic genius behind Bezos’s approach, seeing it as a powerful mechanism to "get this whole company to row in one direction." This alignment, Herrington realized, was crucial for a company growing at an unprecedented pace, navigating uncharted territories in e-commerce, cloud computing, and logistics. The unifying force, he discovered, lay in a set of principles that would become synonymous with Amazon itself: its 16 Leadership Principles.
Initially, these now-famous principles—aimed at defining "how we want our leaders to make decisions, and behave, and work with each other, and solve problems when they’re at their best"—felt overwhelming to Herrington. They seemed prescriptive, almost dogmatic, a stark contrast to the more fluid corporate cultures he might have encountered elsewhere. Yet, over time, Herrington began to grasp the profound power embedded in Bezos’s message and how this meticulously crafted cultural playbook evolved into Amazon’s very identity. He witnessed firsthand how these principles transcended mere guidelines, becoming the very fabric of decision-making, innovation, and problem-solving across the burgeoning enterprise.
"I learned the power of using culture to get everybody on the same page. It just reduces friction if you know where everybody’s coming from," Herrington explained. "And we do it through these Leadership Principles." This insight underscores a fundamental truth about large organizations: a shared understanding of values and operational norms dramatically streamlines processes and fosters cohesion. Without this common language, internal communication falters, decisions become fragmented, and the collective momentum dissipates. For Amazon, these principles became the lingua franca for its rapidly expanding global workforce.
Herrington further clarified that Bezos’s leadership principles were not immutable commandments delivered from on high. In fact, he revealed that many of the principles weren’t even formally written down until 2002, approximately eight years after the company’s founding in 1994. "So Jeff didn’t come down from the mountaintop with these leadership principles carved in stone," Herrington quipped, debunking a common myth about their origin. He emphasized that their codification was a pragmatic response to Amazon’s explosive growth. "We wrote them down primarily so that we could start teaching them to other people, and teaching them to all the new people at Amazon." This act of formalizing the principles transformed an intuitive founder’s philosophy into a scalable educational tool, essential for embedding Amazon’s distinctive culture into every new hire and every new team.
Today, Herrington views these principles—ranging from "Customer Obsession" and "Bias for Action" to "Dive Deep" and "Have Backbone"—as an indispensable unifying language. They provide a coherent framework that aligns Amazon’s roughly 1.5 million employees worldwide, ensuring that even in a decentralized, rapidly innovating environment, everyone operates with a consistent mindset. "Customer Obsession," for instance, mandates that employees start with the customer and work backward, a philosophy that has driven innovations like Amazon Prime, one-click ordering, and the vast selection of products. "Bias for Action" encourages calculated risk-taking and discourages paralysis by analysis, fostering a culture of rapid experimentation and iteration. "Dive Deep" emphasizes understanding the details of any operation, ensuring leaders are not removed from the granular realities of their business. And "Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit" promotes constructive dissent and robust debate, ensuring the best ideas prevail while maintaining unity once a decision is made. These are not abstract ideals but operational directives, deeply integrated into hiring, performance reviews, and daily decision-making processes.
Bezos’s own prolific writings, particularly his highly anticipated annual letters to shareholders, consistently reinforce the core themes encapsulated in his 16 Leadership Principles. These letters, often hailed as masterclasses in business philosophy, articulate a relentless customer focus, an unwavering commitment to long-term thinking over short-term gains, an obsession with invention and pioneering new territories, and the aforementioned strategy of "working backwards" from customer needs. For example, the creation of Amazon Web Services (AWS) was a direct outcome of "Customer Obsession" (recognizing an internal need that became an external service) and "Invent and Simplify." Similarly, the development of the Kindle embodied "Think Big" and "Deliver Results," fundamentally altering the publishing industry.
Steve Anderson, author of The Bezos Letters: 14 Principles to Grow Your Business Like Amazon, meticulously analyzed how these leadership principles consistently underpinned Amazon’s strategy as it scaled from a garage-based startup to the world’s second-largest company by revenue. Anderson’s research revealed that Bezos didn’t just espouse these principles; he lived them and embedded them into the company’s DNA, allowing Amazon to take intentional and calculated risks that often seemed counterintuitive to competitors. "As I studied the letters, I realized Bezos had ‘hidden in plain sight’ how he had grown Amazon by taking intentional and calculated risks," Anderson observed. "I discovered there were recurring themes (principles) that any business could use to grow like Amazon." This highlights the practical, actionable nature of these principles, making them a blueprint for strategic growth and innovation.
The legacy of these principles extends beyond Bezos’s tenure. Current Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has fervently prioritized their continued teaching and explanation internally. Recognizing their complexity and critical importance, Jassy launched an internal video series, "Amazon’s Leadership Principles Explained," offering detailed interpretations of each principle to help employees integrate them into their daily work. Even after nearly three decades at the company, Jassy admits he is still mastering them. "I’m still working on it," Jassy stated in the video series. "People change, competitive dynamics change, products change, technology changes. The Leadership Principles are something you have to constantly work at. When they’re applied well, they’re powerful." This acknowledgment underscores that the principles are not static dogma but living guidelines that require continuous reflection, adaptation, and conscious application in an ever-evolving business landscape.
While Amazon’s top leadership unequivocally champions Bezos’s leadership principles, their universal acceptance and embrace within the vast organization have not been without contention. As Amazon transformed into a corporate behemoth, with its influence stretching across global commerce, cloud computing, and entertainment, the principles have become increasingly interwoven into formal processes like promotions, performance reviews, and workplace policy. This deep institutionalization has, in some instances, drawn significant pushback. Critics argue that the principles, originally designed to inspire and align, can sometimes be weaponized or applied too rigidly, fostering a high-pressure environment where adherence to the "Amazonian way" can overshadow individual contributions or critical thinking. The intense, jargon-laden culture, while efficient, has been described by some as unforgiving, particularly for those who struggle to embody every principle constantly.
Further reflecting on this, Jassy, in 2024, announced a plan to increase the ratio of employees to managers, a decision rooted in Amazon’s historical disdain for inefficiency and bureaucratic layers. This move, framed as an effort to reduce "too many stakeholders involved in decision-making," aligns with principles like "Frugality" and "Bias for Action," aiming to streamline operations and empower individual contributors. "The reality is that the [senior leadership] team and I hate bureaucracy," Jassy stated during a 2024 internal call, addressing employee questions about Amazon’s strict return-to-work policy, a spokesperson confirmed to Fortune. "One of the reasons I’m still at this company is because it’s not a political or bureaucratic place." While intended to foster agility, such directives can also intensify scrutiny on individual performance and perceived adherence to the principles, adding another layer of complexity to the employee experience. The strict return-to-work policy itself, perceived by some as a tool for workforce reduction or control, is another instance where the application of Amazon’s principles (like "Deliver Results" and "Frugality") can face internal and external criticism.
For all the debate and differing interpretations, Bezos’s leadership principles remain one of the most distinctive and enduring artifacts of the founder’s legacy. They represent a pioneering effort to engineer culture with the same meticulous intentionality that the company applies to designing its complex supply chain, optimizing its cloud-computing services, or developing groundbreaking new products. In a company that has never shied away from bold experiments, disruptive innovation, and challenging conventional wisdom, these principles are as much about how decisions are made as they are about what is decided. They embody a meta-strategy for navigating uncertainty and fostering relentless progress.
Herrington, who once viewed the principles with a degree of bemusement and found them "cult-like," now regards them as an indispensable guide for Amazon’s culture—a framework that has demonstrably stood the test of time and shows every sign of continuing to do so. They provide a robust foundation that allows Amazon to maintain its innovative edge and operational excellence, even as it scales to unprecedented sizes and tackles increasingly complex global challenges.
As Herrington articulates, echoing his colleague Russ Grandinetti: "There was never a Camelot where we were perfect. Our leadership principles were always the behaviors that we aspired to live by when we were at our best." This crucial distinction emphasizes that the principles are not a static measure of perfection, but a dynamic aspiration—a compass guiding Amazonians towards their highest potential. The journey of living by these principles is continuous, requiring daily effort and reinforcement. "But the way that we do that is we keep on communicating them and talking them and teaching them. And I try to do that every day," Herrington affirmed. This ongoing commitment to communication, dialogue, and education ensures that Amazon’s unique cultural fabric, woven from these foundational principles, remains vibrant, relevant, and effective in shaping the future of one of the world’s most influential companies.