The Amazon Leadership Principle “Invent and Simplify” plays a pivotal role in the success of Big Bets, particularly when it comes to driving innovation while maintaining cost efficiency. Leaders who embrace Amazon Invent and Simplify push their teams to not only come up with inventive solutions but also to strip away complexity, making execution easier and more cost-effective. In the world of Big Bets, where the stakes are high and the challenges immense, finding ways to simplify processes and reduce costs is crucial. Leaders who constantly seek simplification ensure that resources are used efficiently, allowing the Big Bet to deliver outsized value with minimal waste.
Simplification, especially in large-scale initiatives, directly contributes to maintaining velocity and reducing unnecessary expenses. Leaders must be vigilant in identifying areas where complexity is adding friction, whether it’s in decision-making, workflows, or product design. By focusing on simplification, leaders can streamline operations and drive cost reductions, ensuring that the Big Bet remains agile and responsive to changing conditions. This aligns perfectly with the Big Bet Leadership habit of prioritizing risk and value—leaders who simplify help eliminate risks tied to inefficiency, and ensure that their Big Bets remain focused on delivering maximum value.
In the context of Big Bets, the Amazon Invent and Simplify principle also requires leaders to be open to external ideas and solutions, ensuring they aren’t confined by a “not invented here” mindset. Innovation often comes from unexpected sources, and leaders who remain externally aware can find cost-saving solutions or simplifications that weren’t initially considered. This external awareness, combined with a relentless focus on simplification, ensures that Big Bets can scale efficiently while keeping costs in check. Leaders who apply this principle successfully navigate the complex landscape of Big Bets, delivering results that are not only innovative but also resource-efficient.
Amazon Leadership Principle: Invent and Simplify
Studying the description of the leadership principle is always key. For the Amazon Leadership Principle “Invent and Simplify”, the description reads:
Read it again slowly, parsing and digesting every work of Invent and Simplify.
“Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify.” Interestingly, the words “managers” or “employees” are not used. The word “leaders” is used, signifying that you can do so at any level if you want to be a leader at Amazon.
“Expect and require” — a softer version of this might have been “prioritize” or even “find opportunities” to invent and simplify. No! Every team, every function, and on a continuous basis, leaders require invention and simplification. Whether you work in technology, customer service, finance, legal, or janitorial services, every leader has to operate this way.
“Externally aware and look for new ideas everywhere” — this is humility and requires leaders to study, benchmark, and learn from others. The key is driving impact, and fast, and not where the idea comes from.
“We accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time.” — Invent and Simplify is not a popularity contest. It is not for show or to get on the cover of Fast Company. We invent and simplify to get results, and don’t care what others think. We study others, but we don’t care what they think of our approach. We are independent thinkers.
The Hard Part of this Amazon Invent and Simplify
For apply Amazon Invent and Simplify Amazon, what’s the hardest and most important aspect?
Most people would leap at “invention”! Inventing sounds hard, valuable and fun. And it is. But “inventing” is neither the hardest of most value part of this Amazon leadership principle in most cases.
Simplify is actually the hardest and most important part of this Amazon Leadership Principle. Simply the user experience. Simplify the operator and agent experience. Simplify the work, the job, the data flows, the requirements. As Elon Musk says, “delete, delete, delete”! This is the hardest work I do with enterprise clients in doing the zero-based design work of critical processes so they are fast, efficient, and scalable. This is the heart and soul of “Invent and Simplify”
Read my substack article about Elon Musk’s approach to Invent and Simplify HERE
Elon Musk Delete, Delete, Delete
Onward!
John
John Rossman is a writer, strategy advisor, and keynote speaker. Have him inspire and teach your team.
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John Rossman — leadership keynote speaker
