Sunday, August 16, 2015

Inside Amazon! NYT is not so Neutral!

To appreciate this blog post, it would be good to read the New York Times article,  which says Amazon may be a good place to buy but not a good place to works for cause it is draconian(Darwinian) in a way!

Here are my quick thoughts in no particular order!
  • Don't you wish the company and workers of company from where you buy your product to care for you very deeply and be committed about it? 
  • Have you never spent money for company related work and did not bother to make a claim on it? 
  • Have you never felt that you could say, that was a stupid idea when someone says something very stupid in the meeting rather than faking polite smile and laugh about it it later behind their back?
  • Have you never been angry with your co-workers who slack and goof up and wish you could tell their boss rather than hoping for karma to strike down on them?
If the answer had been YES, then one has nothing to complain against Amazon or things mentioned in this article!
  • As a customer, you want to buy things seamlessly and delivered at the earliest! If that has to happen someone must work crazy and hard to make it happen. If you are fine with sloppy delayed delivery then complain and criticize at what Amazon does!
  • As a stockholder, you want the company to put your money to work, grow it multifold. So why complain when the company is frugal!
  • Amazon is the modern day WalMart. Remember similar kind of arguments or accusations against them too. No wonder they have surpassed WalMart!
  • Haven't you ever felt bad about, people who don't work properly, people who goof around getting promoted, getting raises, the undeserved getting perks and benefits and accolades! So what if there was a system to give anonymous feedback about them to their bosses!
  • Haven't people complained about working for Steve Jobs? At least there it was mostly from people who worked directly with him rather than across the organization. Here Jeff seems to have inspired everyone to be like that. If that is true, then I think it's a great achievement! [Sometimes management is all about making everyone work the way you want even when you are not around!]
  • I also wonder, will Flipkart ever succeed against Amazon!
Please note, I am not defending Amazon. I am not saying what they doing is absolutely right and am not prescribing every organization out there should follow what Amazon does. I just feel the NYT article does exaggerates and paints everything in bad light!

The point that I am trying to make is, every system, every organization has its own ethos, own style of working. Some people embrace it. Some don't. To quote a Bond movie,  One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist.

Moreover, it is too difficult and virtually impossible to have an uniformity (either good or bad) across the organization and generalize stuff. I think it all boils down to your immediate boss and the team!

Self Plug: Buy my book on WalMart at Amazon!