I deconstruct some aspects of the NY Times piece, concluding
Amazon isn’t a single, homogenous company. It’s thousands of variants of the core Amazon, each one different in small or large ways, based on the experiences, backgrounds, and aspirations of those working there. There is no doubt that Bezos’ Amazon and the Amazon of a fulfilment clerk in a shipping center are vastly different, but even the experiences of two similar white collar workers in different marketing teams of different product groups could be totally unlike.
Still, there is a foundational tension at the base of Amazon culture. It’s inescapable. It must be there, like a spring at the heart of a watch.
Amazon exists in a greater society, and the workers work there but live here. But the operational principles of Amazon – like Netflix, Apple, and the other world-beating, high performing giants of our century – are starkly at variance with the business and social tenets of the larger society. That’s part of – and maybe most of – the reason that these companies are disruptive, and are defining the new world we are careening into. That process is not likely to be without disruption of our society. On the contrary, it is inevitable that the deep cultural change necessary for digital transformation of business will change us all, even if we aren’t working at one of those companies. It is coming to change us all, and then everything else.
from Stowe Boyd http://stoweboyd.com/post/126912350912