Jeff Bezos has given his first interview since he bought the Washington Post. He gave the interview to the Washington Post. (I first saw it on the Huffington Post).
Buried in the interview is his simple business approach – simple, not necessarily easy. And simple, but reflecting the clarity of genius.
“We’ve had three big ideas at Amazon that we’ve stuck with for 18 years, and they’re the reason we’re successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient,” he said. “If you replace ‘customer’ with ‘reader,’ that approach, that point of view, can be successful at The Post, too.
…If we figure out a new golden era at The Post . . . that will be due to the ingenuity and inventiveness and experimentation of the team at The Post,” he said. “I’ll be there with advice from a distance. If we solve that problem, I won’t deserve credit for it.”
Here are the three again:
#1 – Put the customer first.
#2 – Invent.
#3 – Be patient.
And I especially liked the clarity of Mr. Bezos in this part of the interview:
Whatever the mission, he said, The Post will have “readers at its centerpiece. I’m skeptical of any mission that has advertisers at its centerpiece. Whatever the mission is, it has news at its heart.”
First Friday Book Synopsis 