Think Like Amazon: The Blueprint Behind One of the World’s Most Successful Businesses 🚀🚀🚀

Welcome to the Think Like Amazon series – where every Monday I share insider insights from my time at Amazon and show you how to apply these leadership principles to accelerate growth in your own business. 📈

👉 Today’s principle: Dive Deep

At Amazon, leaders are expected to know their business at every level.

There’s no hiding behind dashboards, summaries, or assumptions.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:
💡 Leaders don’t just read the metrics – they question them. If a weekly report says customer satisfaction is 95%, the next question is why not 100%? and what’s happening with the other 5%? Data is the start of the conversation, not the end.

💡 Every number has a narrative. Amazon leaders are trained keep asking ‘why’ until they find the real cause. They are not satisfied with ‘weather reporting’, so if a delivery metric slips, they’ll trace it through process flows, ownership, and system data until the root issue is clear.

💡 Leaders are in the detail. Senior VPs can quote customer refund rates or defect percentages without looking at notes – because they’ve asked, read, and experienced it firsthand. They read tickets, visit fulfilment centres, shadow customer service, and test products themselves. No one is too senior to know the work.❗

💡 Bias for Data, not Dependence on It. Amazon measures everything – but they never let missing data delay progress. When information is incomplete, they’ll form hypotheses, run experiments, and create the data they need.

💡 Deep Dives are everyone’s job. Teams are encouraged to challenge assumptions and ask hard questions – even to senior leaders. “Can you show me the data?” is not disrespectful; it’s cultural. Curiosity beats hierarchy.

💡 When metrics conflict with instinct – investigate, don’t ignore. Sometimes the numbers look good, but something ‘feels off’. Amazon leaders trust intuition enough to dig deeper.

💡 Mechanisms over meetings. Regular business reviews, escalation loops, and automated data signals – so deep dives happen routinely, not reactively. These rhythms prevent “big surprises” and drive continuous improvement.

Amazon’s “Dive Deep” principle teaches that great leaders don’t outsource understanding.

They stay curious, connected, and courageous enough to look beyond the surface.

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Now think about your own organisation:
❓Are your leaders close enough to the work to spot patterns before they become problems?
❓Do senior leaders rely on reports, or do they regularly go see the work for themselves?
❓How easy is it in your culture for anyone to ask, “Can you show me the data?”

If you want to build a culture that questions intelligently and learns fast – let’s talk.

I can help you embed Amazon-style curiosity, clarity, and accountability into your leadership DNA. DM me and let’s talk. 📩