Jeff Bezos Spends a Week Working in Amazon’s Kentucky Distribution Center
Posted on March 28, 2009 Comments (3)
Photo of Jeff Bezos during the 2005 O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference by James Duncan.Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, is working for a week in Amazon’s Kentucky distribution center. I hope, and based on his past, I believe, that he is going to the gemba (Genchi Genbutsu) to learn more about how Amazon operates. That would be great.
He worked on wall street and understands the fake constraints they attempt to put companies (you must focus on short term profits, you must focus on pleasing wall street analysts not customers…). He understood the importance of managing cash flow and the unimportance of short term profits. And he understands the importance of customer focus. He understands lean thinking. We need more CEO’s like him.
“He is there to work,” Smith said, “and, unfortunately, we are just not scheduling any interviews while he is in town.”
Local Amazon employees say Bezos is working in the warehouse with the company’s hourly employees to see what they do and hear their comments about their work. Most CEOs would benefit from spending a few days on the shop floor.
Once again his actions indicate he is the type of CEO I want to invest in.
via: Jeff Bezos Works In Kentucky Distribution Center For A Week
Related: Jeff Bezos and Root Cause Analysis – Management by Walking Around – Amazon Innovation – Amazon’s Amazing Achievement – Louisville Slugger, Deming Practices – Management Excellence
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Tags: Amazon, Bezos, gemba, leadership, management, Process improvement
3 Responses to “Jeff Bezos Spends a Week Working in Amazon’s Kentucky Distribution Center”
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March 28th, 2009 @ 11:48 am
actual observation, in situ, is important – to understand fully the situation and what would be helpful. Management relying on reports instead of seeing things in action results in many poor decisions…
October 23rd, 2009 @ 2:44 pm
[...] Amazon continues to build a strong company for the long term. I must admit I think the current stock price might be a bit too high. But I believe in the long term success of the company. They continue to make intelligent, customer focused decisions. [...]
November 8th, 2010 @ 8:20 am
[...] to the gemba – improvement is done where the work is done. You must go to the where the action is. Sitting in meeting rooms, or offices, reading reports and making decisions is not the way to [...]