Leadership Principle Worksheet
This worksheet was designed to share how I align my experience with Amazon’s Leadership Principles. I’ve written down a couple of detailed examples from my experience that relate to each of Amazon’s Leadership Principles. Enjoy! Sandra Burns
Frugality: Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size or fixed expense.
I’ve always been scrappy!
Example 1:
Situation: I needed a state of the art computer and the graphic design software to do graphic design/desktop publishing, later web sites one problem, the cost.
Task: Figure out how to buy a state of the art computer to run the graphic design software I also needed.
Action: Got many quotes comparing buying a Mac or Win computer and its appropriate software. I even went to seminars on desktop publishing to learn more about the software and computer equipment needed.
Result: Well as luck would have it, I won a box of PageMaker Software at an event with over 100 people attending. I then leased the computer until I could pay it off at a local computer store. When the owner asked what I was going to do with the computer I told him desktop publishing. He offered me a job to do marketing. I later saw the speaker “Penny” from the Adobe event I won the software from visiting that very store I worked at and thanked her again. I helped grow that dealership to 200 dealers in 20 months. Looking back I think now how kismet that all those events happened and to later to even work at Adobe doing what Penny did and connect with my future boss walking down a hall in an office I rented to do website design sharing we both worked for Xerox and both knowing Penny. When asked would I do anything different, I think I was on the right path.
Example 2 :
Situation: I needed a projector for seminars, lunch and learns and later training. Projectors were super expensive to buy and a waste of money to rent as often as I needed them.
Task: Figure out whether to buy or continue to rent a projector.
Action: I figured out a way to lease to own the projector.
Result: I now had a projector to use for seminars, lunch and learns, and Adobe training in a way I could afford it.
Example 3:
Situation: I needed office space to do my trainings and to present a location on the Adobe website. Office space was expensive especially if I needed it sporadically as some clients preferred me to come on site for the convenience.
Task: Find office space to only rent when needed.
Action: I found office space nationwide to only rent when needed via the Regus network.
Result: I saved money on monthly rent and only rented it the days I needed. I still went on site when customers preferred to make it convenient for them, earn their business and even offered a discount if they did not need to rent the office and passed the savings on to them. Now, that’s customer obsession too!
Example 4:
Situation: As my training business grew I often had reliability problems from other trainers as they were busy with their own trainings or just not reliable.
Task: How to find reliable trainers.
Action: I decided why not teach myself their courses so I may teach their courses if ever in a bind. I also never double-booked us if possible not only to cover but to have any space available for the training.
Result: I started teaching more and more of other trainers trainings that I could better manage the training schedule, the schedule of the office to be used, and I could offer more discounts to customers or increase my bottom line vs. paying an outside trainer.
Sandra J. Burns, M.Ed. 