Lessons from Over a Decade at Amazon - Building a Day 1 Culture

Recorded during the first-ever Honolulu Tech Week (2024), Joey Aquino, a University of Hawaii at Manoa alumnus with over a decade of experience at Amazon and AWS and now a Venture Partner at Builders VC, facilitated an insightful discussion on the principles and practices that define Amazon's "Day 1" culture with David Hijirida. David, a Punahou School alumnus who spent over 11 years at Amazon, contributedsignificantly to the development of Amazon's global payments team, AWS, and Amazon Advertising's businesses.​They share perspectives on the cultural pillars that have driven Amazon’s success—from Leadership Principles and Tenets to the power of Narratives and Amazon's unique approach to meetings. Learn more at https://www.honolulutechweek.com.

🙏 Mahalo to Builders VC (https://builders.vc) for their partnership in hosting the panel.

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🤙 Honolulu Tech Week
Website & Updates: https://honolulutechweek.com
Calendar: https://lu.ma/hitechweek
LinkedIn:   / hitechweek  
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🎙️ People & Orgs
Joey Aquino, Venture Partner, Builders VC. Ex-AWS, Angel Investor, Board Member:   / jdaquino  
David Hijirida, Fmr. Director of Amazon Payments, AWS, Advertising:   / hijirida  

📋 Outline
00:00 Start
01:42 Company Culture
03:17 David's Background
05:14 Initial Days at Amazon
08:09 Proactive mindset & avoiding excuses
10:25 Leadership Principles
12:17 Role of tenants in product launches and decision-making
14:19 Tenants help codify strategic debates
17:40 Customer Obsession: Challenging but vital
20:27 Be Vocally Self-critical
24:19 Meeting and Memos
29:58 Leaving Amazon
32:37 Practical use of leadership principles in teams
36:02 Metric: Are your customers having a good day?
39:32 Earn trust & be vocally self-critical
41:55 16 Leadership Principles, is it too much?
44:38 Do you see any value in being explicit about the principles?
46:27 Preventing cultural challenges
48:08 Bar Raiser Program ensures cultural alignment in hiring
53:24 Leadership lessons strengthened by Aloha
55:45 Wrapping up

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