“DAY 1”           is the well know declaration from Jeff Bezos, founder, and CEO of Amazon.  He is famous for consistently expressing that for him – it is always Day 1.  I came across the following quote from a 2016 letter from Bezos to Amazon shareholders in response to a question of what does Day 2 look like:

  • “DAY 2 is stasis.  Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death.  And that is why it is always Day 1.”

Vivid imagery, perhaps a bit of hyperbole, but the message is clear.   Stay hungry, stay sharp, never relax, or let your guard down.   Or is it?

I have read some version of that always Day 1 message several times and have always associated it with an image of intensity.  A bit of the “only the paranoid survive” thinking.  Given the evolution of my own views on work, leadership and life of the last 10 years or so, I was troubled by that.  Is it sustainable?  What is the cost to actual living human beings?  Their health mentally, emotionally, and physically? Do we want our fellow team members to always be on edge?  Do we want them constantly in fight or flight mode?  I decided to dig a bit deeper and was surprised by what I found.

In the same 2016 letter to shareholders Bezos adds color to his view of what he calls “Day 1 defense” and defines 4 essential elements:

  1. Obsessive customer focus – constant listening, probing and learning from our customers is the best way to stay relevant and to continue to grow business and revenue. A customer obsessed culture creates the best conditions to experiment and learn from our customers.  To quote one of my favorite sales guru’s, Jeff Gitomer- “Customer satisfaction is worthless, customer loyalty is priceless.”
  2. Resist Proxies – process is a proxy; customer surveys are proxies. Both are important tools but are dangerous and seductive substitutes for deeply understanding our customers.  We need to use our heart, our gut, our curiosity, all of it to intuit and appreciate our customers.
  3. Embrace external trends – we cannot fight the future, and the big obvious trends define that future. Embrace and learn, learn, learn.
  4. High Velocity Decision Making – knowing 70% of the information is good enough, acknowledge mistakes quickly and aggressively recover. If decision process is driven by group dynamic build enough trust among team members so that anyone can disagree with a decision, but still commit to successful execution of it.

Wow, those are clear and consistent leadership messages.  None point to win at all costs or required 70 hour per week dedication.  While number 4 does focus on urgency, it is in a reasonable context.    1,2 and 3 emphasize the need for focus outside the organization and keeping our eye on the ball-serving our customers.

So while Amazon and working under Jeff Bezos maybe pressure and stress driven, the Day 1 message that he has been preaching since 1997 fits perfectly in my view of healthy leadership.   Incidentally, I looked back at the 1997 letter to shareholders, and it is uncanny how much of what he said then still applies, over 20 years later, to how he is leading Amazon.

Bravo Mr. Bezos.  We need more leadership like yours.