SPEAKING TOPIC
Customer Obsession — The Amazon Way
Every company has values — do they really make a difference? Amazon has Leadership Principles—the performance standards defining how decisions get made at every level. John Rossman reveals starts with customer obsession and weaves his way through the Amazon’s other principles—ownership, bias for action, frugality, dive deep and of course, deliver results —turning culture into competitive advantage. This isn’t about importing Amazon’s principles. It’s about building the system that makes yours actually work. Based on his bestseller The Amazon Way.
Let John Tell You About It
If you are looking for a way to improve how you manage your own company or are just curious about an inside look at how amazon works this is a great place to start. Of all the books I’ve read on amazon this one seems the most useful and insightful.
This book effectively captures the essence of amazon’s leadership. The heart of Amazon is finally revealed. John Rossman excels at paying attention to the details.
What this book does well is capture the excitement of Amazon. I read this book in one day and had trouble putting it down. It was that interesting.
You can’t afford not to read this book if you own your own company. It is that good!
~The Rebecca Review
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Rossman’s Classic Keynote on Customer Obsession & The Amazon Leadership Principles
Most companies think “customer centricity” and “customer obsession” are the same thing. They’re not even close. It’s like confusing a mission statement with an operating system.
Here’s the critical difference: At most companies, customer centricity is motivational inspiration. It sounds great in town halls, looks good on posters, and disappears when hard decisions get made. Customer obsession? That’s an obligation. It’s how you decide what to build, what to kill, and where to place your billion-dollar bets. It’s the operating system that runs every decision, every day.
That’s what The Amazon Way is really about—and it starts with Customer Obsession, the first and most important of Amazon’s Leadership Principles.
John Rossman was at Amazon during the formative years when they figured out they weren’t just a retailer but a platform company. They didn’t rely on inspiration—they built principles and mechanisms that made innovation inevitable by working backwards from the customer.
In this keynote, you’ll learn Amazon’s Leadership Principles and the critical frameworks that bring them to life: Working Backwards to ensure you start with the customer. How “Invent and Simplify” is about simplifying how you work, not just what you build. Why outcome orientation forces you past polite politics to create authentic trust and collaboration between teams.
These aren’t abstract concepts. They’re the culture and operating system that turned a Seattle book retailer into a global multi-industry platform company—both world-class operator and systematic transformer.
This keynote isn’t about Amazon. It’s about you—your culture, your business, your customers. Because business is a team sport, and everyone needs to play from the same high-ambition playbook. Your playbook. You can build this too.
Praise for John
"An amazing event! John really helped us think in terms of the championship habits. Highly recommend John for your corporate event!"
- Frank Marini, President & CEO
"He set the tone on transformational leadership and gave the necessary tools for participants to execute. John was ranked the highest speaker at our event!"
- Maria, VCA
"I learned more in John's 90-minute keynote than I learned from my NYU MBA program. That sounds like hyperbole, but it's not. Everything we studied about strategy was theoretical. This was the actual playbook—how Amazon makes decisions, how they spot market shifts before competitors, how they build mechanisms that force customer obsession into daily operations. My team is still referencing the framework six months later."
- Private Equity Event Attendee
"Wow! Our team loved John’s Big Bet Leadership presentation. The message was spot on for our digital journey. We are ordering more books now."
- Keith Nelson, Manufacturing Executive
“The audience LOVED your leadership keynote and they took away many key learnings that they hope can be applied moving forward.”
– NOVARTIS
"The Big Bet Leadership keynote delivered an unparalleled journey through innovation and leadership excellence. Its profound insights have invigorated our team, equipping us to navigate our industry with newfound clarity and velocity. This keynote set a new benchmark for our team’s leadership excellence. John was incredible in preparing & interacting with our team!"
– Frank Marini, CEO of Railbookers, 2024
IT’S NOT ABOUT AMAZON
- The obsession vs. centricity distinction. Crystal clarity on why one is inspiration and the other is an operating system—and how to diagnose which you actually have.
- Amazon’s Leadership Principles. The 16 principles that define how decisions get made at every level—starting with Customer Obsession and including Ownership, Bias for Action, Frugality, Dive Deep, and more.
- Working Backwards framework. Amazon’s signature mechanism for starting with the customer and building backwards—applicable to product launches, strategy development, and organizational design.
- Invent and Simplify in practice. How simplification of work processes (not just products) creates velocity and innovation—with specific examples of mechanisms that force this discipline.
- Outcome orientation tools. How to shift from activity metrics to outcome focus—and why this breaks through polite politics to create authentic collaboration.
- Your playbook blueprint. A roadmap for translating these principles into your organization’s culture and decision-making system—not copying Amazon, but building what works for you.
- Mechanisms over motivation. Specific examples of how Amazon built systems that made customer obsession inevitable, not optional—and how to design similar mechanisms in your context.
- The platform mindset. How Amazon evolved from retailer to platform company—and what that shift means for how you think about your business model and competitive strategy.
John Rossman
Digital and Innovation Keynote Speaker
Author | Advisor | Founder
About John Rossman
John Rossman launched Amazon Marketplace and has spent twenty years advising Fortune 1000 enterprises, mid-market companies, and startups on competitive advantage and operational excellence.
He’s the author of four best-selling books including The Amazon Way, Think Like Amazon, and Big Bet Leadership. He served as Senior Innovation Advisor at T-Mobile, Senior Technology Advisor at the Gates Foundation, and Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal.
John goes beyond keynote speaking—he works with leadership teams to apply these principles into their business and culture as advisor and executive coach.
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