A 15th Amazon Leadership Principle?

Amazon is at a pivotal moment in its history, facing growing regulatory and legal scrutiny just as a new CEO, Andy Jassy, takes the reins from founder Jeff Bezos.

Could a new leadership principle help to guide the company in its next era?

"Treat others as you'd like to be treated — employees, vendors, partners, brands, small companies, competitors, press, critics, community," his suggested leadership principle reads, in part. "Contribute and be a leading steward of your community. Foster and lobby not for your best interests, but for future innovation and competition's best interest."

It concludes, "Conduct yourself, both personally and as an organization, in a way your mom and your kids would be proud of. Always."

From the outside, it might sound like mere window dressing, but given the role that the existing 14 leadership principles play in Amazon's day-to-day operations, Rossman says the addition could have a real impact.

"You actually have to insert them into how you hire, how you operate every day, how you evaluate, how you think about strategy and operations," he says. "I think would push them to have to innovate in new ways and would work in conjunction, not in conflict with their other principles."

Rossman played a key role in launching the Amazon Marketplace business before leading the company's Enterprise Services business during his tenure at the company. He's now a business advisor on strategy, leadership and innovation. We talk about the company's next phase on this episode of Day 2, GeekWire's podcast about everything Amazon. 

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