At the heart of Amazon’s meteoric rise from an online bookstore to a global behemoth lies a foundational principle championed by its founder, Jeff Bezos: an unwavering commitment to hiring excellence. As early as 1998, Bezos keenly recognized that the caliber of every new hire would determine the company’s ultimate success or failure, articulating a deceptively simple yet profoundly impactful hiring philosophy centered on three core questions designed to continuously elevate the organizational standard.
The first crucial inquiry posed to interviewers was, “Will you admire this person?” This question transcended mere competency, urging interviewers to look beyond resumes and assess a candidate’s intrinsic qualities, such as their character, drive, and potential for inspiration. It aimed to bring individuals into the fold who would not only perform their duties but also contribute positively to the intellectual and ethical fabric of the emerging company, fostering an environment of mutual respect and high aspirations.
Secondly, interviewers were tasked with pondering, “Will this person raise the average level of effectiveness of the group they’re entering?” This directive underscored Bezos’s emphasis on continuous improvement and the collective advancement of teams. It challenged recruiters to ensure that each new addition would genuinely enhance the existing talent pool, preventing complacency and actively pushing the team towards greater productivity and innovative problem-solving, thereby safeguarding Amazon against what Bezos termed “entropy” in its rapid expansion.
The third and perhaps most intriguing question was, “Along what dimension might this person be a superstar?” This query encouraged interviewers to identify unique talents or extraordinary aptitudes in candidates, even those seemingly unrelated to the job description. Bezos famously cited an Amazon employee who was a National Spelling Bee champion, illustrating how diverse and unexpected abilities could enrich the workplace and foster a more engaging and dynamic corporate culture for everyone involved.
This early, intuitive hiring doctrine eventually crystallized into Amazon’s renowned “bar-raiser” program, a highly structured system where specially trained interviewers hold the power to veto any candidate who fails to demonstrably improve the company’s overall talent pool. This rigorous approach, which Amazon’s current Chief Executive still extols as one of its “crown jewels,” serves as a robust mechanism for preserving and advancing the high standards set by its founder from the outset, ensuring that the bar for entry perpetually ascends.
Bezos’s advocacy for high standards extended far beyond Amazon’s nascent years, becoming a pervasive theme in his leadership philosophy even as the company diversified globally. In his influential 2017 letter to shareholders, he articulated the profound belief that “high standards are teachable” and indispensable for consistently meeting and exceeding the ever-evolving expectations of customers. His memorable summation, “Once you’ve tasted high standards, there’s no going back,” encapsulated the transformative power of this principle.
Even the 2020 shareholder letter echoed this enduring conviction from 1998, reaffirming that the commitment to setting an exceptionally high hiring bar “will continue to be the single most important element of Amazon.com’s success.” This consistent emphasis across decades underscores its fundamental role in Amazon’s journey from an online bookseller to a multifaceted global logistics, cloud computing, and retail powerhouse, deeply ingrained in its operational DNA.
While Amazon’s relentless pursuit of high standards has sometimes drawn criticism, with some observers characterizing its pace as fostering a cut-throat corporate culture, the company’s leaders consistently argue that this very toughness and exacting approach have been the indispensable force propelling its unprecedented expansion and diversification. It is this foundational commitment to talent and excellence that remains central to understanding Amazon’s enduring success and its formidable presence in the global economy.
