Company: Amazon

Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, Earth’s best employer, and Earth’s safest place to work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon.

When Amazon.com launched in 1995, it was with the mission “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company.” What does this mean? It’s simple. We’re a company that obsesses over our customers. Our actions, goals, projects, programs and inventions begin and end with the customer top of mind. In other words, we start with the customer and work backwards. When we hit on something that is really working for customers, we double-down on it with hopes to turn it into an even bigger success. However, it’s not always as clean as that. Inventing is messy, and over time, it’s certain that we’ll fail at some big bets too.

You’ll also hear us say that at Amazon, it’s always “Day 1.” What do we mean? Our approach remains the same as it was on Amazon’s very first day — to make smart, fast decisions, stay nimble, innovate and invent, and focus on delighting customers. Amazon’s “Day 1” mentality is our approach of doing everything with the energy and entrepreneurial spirit of a new organization on its first day. Working to earn and keep our customers’ trust is the single biggest driver of Amazon’s Day 1 approach. Amazon’s decision-making process that asks employees to consider whether an action is a one-way door—consequential and nearly irreversible—or a two-way door, easy to change course and go back.

As part of our mission to strive to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, we’re committed to reflecting the diverse perspectives and experiences of our global customer base in order to provide products and services that make life easier for everyone. We’re in this together—reaching across cultures—creating global tech innovations that unite us in new and exciting ways. Amazon creates inclusive technology that connects our diverse world, disrupting the status quo of how we learn, shop, communicate, work, and live. 

As of 2023, women comprise 40% of Amazon’s 10-person board and 14% of Amazon’s C-Suite. In addition, Amazon has: 

• Increased the number of women in L8+ positions in STEM-focused roles by 66%.
• Reached 1.9 million students in the U.S. and 3.2 million globally through Amazon Future Engineer. The program aims to increase access to STEM education for students from underrepresented communities and is currently available in the U.S., UK, France, Canada, India, and Germany.
• Increased L8+ Black and Latino/a/x leaders across the U.S. by 39% and 32%, respectively.
• Increased L4-L7 Black and Latino/a/x talent across the U.S. by 25% and 27%, respectively.
• While we saw a lower number of veterans and military spouses across the U.S., down 12% and 5% respectively, we remain on track to meet our pledge of hiring 100,000 veterans and military spouses by 2024.
• Began work on a racial equity audit to evaluate the impacts of our policies, programs, and practices on hourly operations employees in the U.S.

Our priorities still start with inclusive experiences and technology for employees, customers, and communities across the world. We continue our focus on women, underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, the LGBTQIA+ community, people with disabilities, and military populations.