Boss women borrow balls
Illustration by Todd St. John from The New Yorker.
Deep in manland
As we near the end of October, it's time to plan for 2020.
To prep, I spent the weekend balling up on:
1. Charles Duhigg's analysis of Jeff Bezos and Amazon in the article The Unstoppable Machine.
2. Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great by Jim Collins.
Duhigg's article is a long, thought-provoking read that presents a well-researched perspective on the personal, economic and societal ramifications of Bezos' ambition. (There's an audio version that runs 1:21:42.)
The article references Amazon's flywheel and provides context for how Amazon uses process to spin out innovation after innovation. Duhigg compares Bezos and Amazon to Alfred P. Sloan and General Motors, correlating a framework for success that Jim Collins runs with in Turning the Flywheel. Many of the world's great companies grow and maintain dominance by creating structured and repeatable processes that are adhered to with maniacal discipline.
Like GM at the height of its power, Amazon is a process company. Here is the staggering effect of the 2018 revenue from their flywheel (all data from the Duhigg article):
Online sales - $122 billion
Fulfillment by Amazon - $42 billion
AWS - $26 billion
Amazon Prime + Kindle Unlimited - $14 billion
Whole Foods - $17 billion
Ad sales - $10 billion
Amazon devices - Estimated hundreds of millions
Their process is fueled by a strict adherence to hiring and living by their Leadership Principles and the company's Day One management style.
Regardless of how you feel about Amazon's values and ethics, there are lessons you can apply to your own growth machine. In Jim Collins' monograph, Turning the Flywheel, the author breaks down Amazon's momentum machine:
Jim Collin's explanation of Amazon's flywheel from Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great
Collins also shares flywheel examples for Intel, Giro cycling helmets, an elementary school, a music festival, and a health clinic. He also lists out how 18 corporations moved from first arena success to the next big extension of the flywheel.
This is useful as a planning tool because of its simplicity. You can see how every revenue-generating aspect of the company maps back to a basic structure. Use other companies' parts as a springboard to think of your own.
Turning the Flywheel is just 37 pages and takes about two hours to read. It's all you need to start mapping out your flywheels.
BTW, skim Jim Collins' concepts for a refresher on BHAG, The Hedgehog, First Who, Then What, and other management nuggets. Also notable is that none of the 18 companies mentioned in the success list are run by women. Mr. Collins could start with the Fortune Most Powerful Women of 2019 for inspiration.
Thanks to Jeff Alpen for lending me a copy of this book. That action made this article possible. 🙏
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