Have you ever wondered what drives one of the world’s greatest companies in the way that it does? There is a mindset here; a way of thinking about work, people, and purpose. One of the greatest stories of this kind is that of Jeff Bezos and his company Amazon.

In his testimony at the US House Subcommittee on Antitrust in July 2020, Bezos presented more than a legal argument. He provided a glimpse into his own life, his own values, that helped build the Amazon way. He talked of his mother’s toughness, fighting on to educate herself despite hardships, his father’s stubborn streak, his own struggles to establish Amazon, his adoption by his adopted father, a Cuban immigrant, at age four. All these factors imparted to him a lesson or two on adapting to tough circumstances. An ancient Indian proverb says, “The tree with strong roots laughs at the storm.”

At the heart of Amazon is what Bezos describes as the Day One mindset. Day One is not a date, it’s a mindset. It means coming to work each day with the mind of a startup, even if you’re a huge corporation operating all over the world. Just like Swami Vivekananda, who says, “Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached,” to move forward, one must remain constantly awake. Day Two, according to Bezos, is the problem of “complacency, bureaucracies, and the threat of irrelevance.”

But at the heart of Day One is customer obsession. The secret to Amazon’s success, after all, wasn’t about outdoing the competition but about building trust, again and again, by keeping promises. Trust, once achieved, becomes a multiplier. Peter Drucker summed it up succinctly: “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”

Of course, Amazon’s success was never a solo act. Bezos has always been mindful of the third-party sellers who have come to represent a large portion of Amazon’s business. In providing others an opportunity to succeed, even when they are competing against Amazon, he has shown the spirit of an abundant thinker.

This wisdom is corroborated by the Mahabharata and the spirit of paraspara bhavana: “This Arjuna, who always had the welfare of his friends and brothers at heart, ever sought the well-being of others, and found success only when others succeeded too. Success multiplies when success is shared.”

Bezos has also coined the concept of “dreamy business ideas,” meaning the kind of business that makes customers immensely happy along with scalable growth and strong profitability. The Amazon Market is the best example of it. Auctions and zShops failed initially, but Bezos has the attitude of learning from failure. “I have not failed,” says Thomas Edison aptly. “Just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Amazon Prime started out as an ambitious wager on convenience: quick and free shipping, albeit unprofitable. But it expanded into an “ecosystem of entertainment, services, and loyalty.” The lesson is obvious: begin with the strength of an idea, but be prepared for growth and adaptation as you go along. This is the essence of Rabindranath Tagore’s “Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.”

Then came Amazon Web Services (AWS), which represented an utterly new paradigm for the IT industry. With AWS’s on-demand payment for computing resources, the playing field for technology access was forever changed for startups and corporations. AWS’s success speaks to the importance of innovation and the need to set new standards instead of living in the past. In these respects, there are lessons in the career of Bezos that will never date. Think long-term, stay obsessed with customers, work generously as an ally, innovate constantly. These principles apply whatever kind of institution you lead—whether a hospital, a start-up, or a classroom—and apply whatever your ambition for that institution may be. 

Every day can be a “Day One.” Building trust takes time. Sharing success means sharing it with others. Acting in these ways may not lead you to build an Amazon, but it will lead you to build an institution that will flourish, that will remain relevant, and of which you can be proud.

Dr. Prahlada N.B
MBBS (JJMMC), MS (PGIMER, Chandigarh). 
MBA in Healthcare & Hospital Management (BITS, Pilani), 
Postgraduate Certificate in Technology Leadership and Innovation (MIT, USA)
Executive Programme in Strategic Management (IIM, Lucknow)
Senior Management Programme in Healthcare Management (IIM, Kozhikode)
Advanced Certificate in AI for Digital Health and Imaging Program (IISc, Bengaluru). 

Senior Professor and former Head, 
Department of ENT-Head & Neck Surgery, Skull Base Surgery, Cochlear Implant Surgery. 
Basaveshwara Medical College & Hospital, Chitradurga, Karnataka, India. 

My Vision: I don’t want to be a genius.  I want to be a person with a bundle of experience. 

My Mission: Help others achieve their life’s objectives in my presence or absence!

My Values:  Creating value for others. 

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