How I Work
Amazon executive Paul Migliorini on banning PowerPoint decks, using frugality to drive innovation, and trying to always say yes.
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Episode notes
My guest today is Paul Migliorini. Paul leads the Amazon Web Services business across Australia and New Zealand - a role that he has been in for the last four years. Prior to joining AWS Paul held leadership roles in Asia and Australia with BT, Motorola, Regus and Ernst & Young, most recently as the CEO for Regus ANZ and Regional Managing Director for South Asia at BT.
I was keen to speak to Paul because I have heard a lot of things about Amazon’s culture and ways of working that fascinated me. And there is nothing better than being able to get an insider’s perspective on how it all works.
So if you have ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of one of the world’s fastest growing and most powerful companies, I think you’ll love my chat with Paul.
We cover:
- How Paul has dramatically changed his mobile phone behaviour
- Amazon’s 14 key leadership principles
- How being frugal leads to innovative
- The importance of “two pizza teams"
- Why leaders at Amazon do more coaching rather than managing
- Why input measures matter more than output measures
- The two types of decisions that can be made at Amazon and how this impacts decision-making speed
- The importance of disagreeing and committing to decisions
- How strong opinions are encouraged at Amazon
- How Amazon identifies people who will fit with the culture during the recruitment process
- The 50% test that Amazon use in their recruitment process
- Why Powerpoint is banned at Amazon
- The critical role of long form narratives at Amazon
- Why the first 15-20 minutes of meetings at Amazon are spent reading
- Why Amazon create fictitious press releases for products that don’t exist
- Amazon’s working backwards process
- Why Paul sees it as his job to say yes to as many requests as possible.
Learn more about Amazon's Summit, check out career opportunities at Amazon and connect with Paul on Linkedin.
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