Comments on: Amazon is hunting for you this holiday season

By: Kevin Ertell

Kevin Ertell — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:24:27 +0000

Thanks for your comments, Chris. I completely agree with your point about Amazon’s innovation culture and willingness to try new things. True innovators recognize that not everything works out as intended. Sometimes you get failure and sometimes you succeed in a way you didn’t expect. There are lots of good Thomas Edison quotes on this topic, and a couple of my favorites are:
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
and
“Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.”
Companies with innovative cultures have the courage to stand behind statements like those, and Amazon seems to be one of them. To truly come up with great innovations we have to be willing to think hard and we have to have enough will power to fail repeatedly. Tough to do, but the payoff can be fantastic. Thanks again for your thoughts.

By: Chris Eagle

Chris Eagle — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:08:18 +0000

Great article. There are a lot of factors that result in the graph you show, but I think most of us would agree that Amazon is one of the most successful innovators in recent time.
However, I would argue that your statement “Amazon seems to be quicker to recognize and capitalize on those advantages than everyone else.” is not entirely accurate. We remember all of the great Amazon innovations, but tend to forget all of the unsuccessful ones, and it’s a safe bet that Amazon tries 2-3 non-successes for every great innovation. I think a more accurate version of your statement would be “Amazon seems to be more willing to try new stuff and then recognize and capitalize on the ones that work than everyone else.”
It may seem like a nit, but I think the difference is really important. Most companies can see when an initiative is working and try to milk that initiative. The big difference is that innovative companies find ways to try more things.