Jassy Announces New Promotion Strategy at Amazon
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has revealed a significant change in the company’s approach to promotions. During a recent internal town hall meeting, Jassy declared that the path to advancement at Amazon will no longer be through building large teams.
According to a recording of the meeting obtained by Business Insider, Jassy told employees that Amazon is “actively changing how it thinks about promotions.” He stressed that the best leaders are those who “get the most done with the least amount of resources required to do the job.”
Emphasis on Smaller, Efficient Teams
Jassy highlighted the effectiveness of smaller teams in past successes. He explained that the focus would be on “meritocracy” and “getting things done for customers” rather than adhering to bureaucratic processes.
“The way to get ahead at Amazon is not to go accumulate a giant team and fiefdom,” Jassy stated. “There’s no award for having a big team. We want to be scrappy about us to do a lot more things.”
This shift aligns with Amazon’s recent initiative to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by 15% across its organizations. The goal is to reduce bureaucracy and the number of management layers.
Jassy reminded employees that some of Amazon Web Services’ most successful products initially launched with teams of around a dozen people. He noted that “every new project shouldn’t take 50 or more people to do it.”
Meritocracy Over Bureaucracy
The Amazon CEO stressed the importance of meritocracy over bureaucracy, stating, “It’s not how charismatic you are. It’s not whether you’re really good at managing up or managing sideways. What matters is what we actually get done for customers. That is what we reward.”
Jassy also urged employees to “move fast and act like owners,” acknowledging the intense competition Amazon faces from “the most technically able, most hungry” companies, including startups “working seven days a week, 15 hours a day.”
“What would I do if this was my company? And by the way, it is your company. This is all of our company,” Jassy told staff, encouraging them to consider both internal goals and external innovations.
