Guide to Building Data-Driven Organizations in the Public Sector

Tale of Two DDHR Systems - The Case for Amazon

Team 4

Make an argument that Amazon’s use of human resources data will be more effective than Zappos’s approach.

Amazon is a strong company that is a leader in offering the best customer service from a vast array of merchandise, fast delivery of items, and efficient delivery of online streaming services. Amazon is a giant in its industry because it understands what drives their customers and provides the employees to meet their demands. It also creates a culture that strives for excellence beyond the unimaginable. Zappos, although equally striving for the same goal, offer more accommodations for their employees in their work culture, which increases loyalty to the company and its growth, but it does not create a culture of excellence beyond dreams.

Amazon is a company that promotes innovation, excellence and commitment and rewards those who meet those goals. Amazon’s “14 Leadership Principles include: Customer Obsession, Ownership, Invent and Simplify, Are Right, A Lot, Learn and Be Curious, Hire and Develop the Best, Insist on the Highest Standards, Think Big, Bias for Action, Frugality, Earn Trust, Dive Deep, Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit, and Deliver Results” (J. Kantor and D. Streitfeld, 2015). Maybe the atmosphere is a little stringent for some employees, but they do offer a $5,000 incentive for those who wish to leave. Amazon is a leader that ultimately purchased Zappos because it is getting harder for many companies to compete with Amazon’s service delivery.

However, Amazon is not a company for everyone, as one employee, Jason Merkoski, mentioned in the article, that “The joke in the office was that when it came to work/life balance, work came first, life came second, and trying to find the balance came last. Jason worked on projects including Kindle and the Fire TV device and was employed at Amazon 2006 to 2010, then again in 2014” (J. Kantor and D. Streitfeld, 2015). I can appreciate Amazon’s work culture because it really pushes an employee to be innovative and dream big. Equally, Amazon invests in its employees’ innovative ideas to see them through to fruition. This is a place were young minds can achieve their highest potential, grow professionally, and receive top pay for a job well done. There are times in people’s lives when this type of environment will not be suitable, but while you are employed with Amazon, they compensate you for your contributions.

When I was a young professional, I wish Amazon existed. Although stringent and competitive, I have always had a creative mind and could dream the unimaginable. At that time, I was also driven and had an ambition to succeed. A company like Amazon would have taught me early on, the meaning of great work ethic, the power that creativity combined with data and insight can produce, and it would have provided a strong and powerful pathway for a future career with other companies when it was time to find balance in my life.

It is rare to find companies that embrace a competitive spirit within their employees. I believe that it is more common than not, to find companies that want to follow the leader and maintain status quo for fear of failure. At Amazon, failure is not an option, following others is not an option, and it offers all the resources needed for employees to lead the way in innovation. Not anyone can be an “Amazonian” or an “Ambot” but those who achieve to wear those names, will reach success in all they do.

title: “Tale of Two DDHR Systems - The Case for Amazon”

Team 4

Amazon staff selection and rigorous onboarding and culture have helped the organization to reach their amazing growth from a start up in 1997 to move than a $800M in 2019.
Amazon pushes employees past what they thought were their limits. According to The New York Times article, employees have said that “Amazon is the greatest place I hate to work” (Jantor & Streitfeld, 2015). Amazon has their own principles that their leader Jeff Bezos promotes from the top-down, and those principles help to create an army of select staff who help each other realize their immense potentials. Sometime that can be in form blunt feedback that can be painful. Amazonians are coached to “disagree and commit” (Jantor & Streitfeld, 2015). Another principle is “Ownership”. Leaders should act on behalf of the entire company and never say something is not part of their job.

Amazon veterans say, “If you are a good Amazonian, you become an Amabot” meaning you become one with the system. That culture allows the entire organization to move in one direction. Goals are clearly defined, everyone knows that failure is not an option and if one of the team falls behind, they will be culled to make room for those that can keep up. That is counterintuitive to most other organizations that work as a team and help each other succeed. Amazon gathers data to determine which of their staff are the higher producing, most efficient and creative. Amazon then encourages and promotes those with top talent and discourages the average and lower performing staff. The staff who cannot keep up the pace are publicly chastised for their less than stellar performance and

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