Amazon CEO Andy Jassy delivered a brutally honest motivational pep talk at an internal staff meeting on Tuesday, urging employees to band together as the company tries to get through an unusually challenging time.
Jassy said there's a lot of work to do to make progress on Amazon's existing businesses, new businesses, across teams, and the company's culture. That will take "many months" and some of the company's moves will be "misunderstood." But he promised employees that the progress they make will "redefine" Amazon and better-position the company going forward, according to a recording of the all-hands meeting obtained by Insider.
"This is not work that's going to take one or two months, you know, we're going to make progress, meaningful progress every month, but this will take many months, and I'm quite confident that we will be misunderstood and we will be underrated," Jassy said.
"And you know what, that will not be the first time it's happened, and it will not be the last time it happens. If we focus squarely on delivering for customers and realizing, all of us as owners, that we all have a piece of making this happen, and being part of the solution, I'm quite confident that we're going to deliver an immense amount and redefine what it is to be Amazon. I feel really strongly that our best days are unquestionably in front of us, and I look forward to making that happen with all of you," he added.
Jassy's comments were in response to an employee question about the cost cuts and investments Amazon has been simultaneously making in recent months. A combination of a major growth slowdown and a difficult economy led Amazon to lay off 18,000 people last month and shutter a number of long-term projects. At the same time, Amazon has committed to continue investing in areas like grocery shopping, healthcare, and personal devices.
Amazon's spokesperson didn't respond to a request for comment.
'Breathtaking set of innovations'
Amazon started seeing "a very uncertain economic environment" last summer when the company was making operational plans for the upcoming year, Jassy said. Due to the massive expansion and hiring Amazon had undertaken, the company had to find ways to streamline costs heading into a turbulent economy, which led to the layoffs, a hiring freeze, and cancellation of many projects.
"For any leadership team and for all of us as a group, we always have to look at what's going on around us in the macro economy as well as in our businesses," Jassy said. "I know that this is and feels like a really difficult time."
Still, Amazon made sure to save the resources needed to pursue long-term, key strategic bets that could "change broad customer experiences," he said. Jassy mentioned a long list of investment areas including: grocery; international markets; entertainment (music and video streaming); the Alexa voice-assistant; personal devices; Zoox autonomous vehicles; Project Kuiper broadband satellites; and healthcare.
"That collection that I just mentioned is a breathtaking set of innovations that we're pursuing. I don't really know any other company that's pursuing a set of innovations like that," Jassy said.
To that end, Jassy urged employees to work as a team, as it's usually a "series of things" — not one big invention — that make companies grow. He said every employee should do the following 3 things to help Amazon be successful:
- Focus: Amazon is not hiring as many people any more, which should free up time to "be more productive this year," Jassy said. "There's so much that we can get done," he said.
- Be customer obsessed: Customer obsession has always been at the heart of Amazon's culture, but it's particularly important now. "These are uncertain and hard times. So you have an opportunity to reprioritize and rethink what matters most for customers," Jassy said.
- Be an owner: Take ownership and be passionate about your work, he said. At times of uncertainty, companies need to work closer as a team, he said, stressing the need to be frugal to lower costs. "The competition is hard enough and we need to work together as a team. Think about how we can be speedy and insurgent," he said.
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