Amazon Letter to Shareholders: Long-term success in two points
Solve real customer challenges; Build primitives
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Andy Jassy's 2023 letter to Amazon shareholders hits on two critical points about Amazon's long-term success:
"2/ solving real customer challenges, rather than what we think may be interesting technology; 3/ building in primitives so that we can innovate and experiment at the highest rate"
In technology, we are often sucked into cool new technology for the sake of the “wow” factor.
I am not a cryptocurrency advocate because I have not seen a compelling consumer use case made real. The technology is fascinating and has potential, but it must solve a broad customer problem to live up to its endless hype.
"Be a painkiller, not a vitamin" reminds me that the strongest products address an important customer need.
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Twitch founder Emmett Shear often said that it is more important to have a smaller set of customers love your product than a larger set merely like it.
Time will tell regarding Amazon and GenAI.
That said, the general approach of focusing on customer solutions will continue to work for Amazon.
Focusing on customers is powerful.
The second point, about building primitives, is more powerful and less commonly understood.
Many businesses focus on creating "end-to-end" solutions and integrated ecosystems.