The unique leadership style of Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos turned his book selling company Amazon into an ‘everything store’. Amazon dominates the world’s market, and Jeff Bezos is currently the richest man in the world. Bezos’ success story is one of determination and a unique leadership style which took Amazon to the next level.

These are some of the things that sets apart Bezos’ leadership style from others.

He expects more from his employees

Jeff Bezos is known to have high expectations for his employees. In 1999, Amazon had around 500 employees for answering emails, and each employee was expected to answer 12 emails per minute. Having very high expectations for his employees means that Amazon runs very efficiently and effectively in its operation. This is obvious to most, with Amazon famously being able to make same day deliveries in over 12 different US cities.

Treat the customer as king

This might seem obvious to a service that caters towards customers, but Bezos’ takes it to another level. Bezos focuses on customer satisfaction metrics, putting a great deal of focus on keeping the customer happy. Amazon is so focused on this, they specifically have employees working solely on customer satisfaction research, finding out that a 0.1 second delay on a loading page lowers customer activity. By focusing so much on customer satisfaction, Amazon has been able to develop a company that ranks high on the University of Michigan’s retail customer satisfaction survey every year. This focus on customer satisfaction ultimately shaped their success.

Jeff Bezos’ leadership style is unique, and helped to create what Amazon is today. It focuses on customer satisfaction, as well as high expectations from his employees. This combination of traits is what shaped Amazon to what it is today, and turned Jeff Bezos into the richest man in the world.