article on Bezos from Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2012/04/04/inside-amazon/

~Very interesting and good reporting, though it might add that customers 
are just one part of a business; staff, managers, suppliers and 
investors are also part of the need.

"Even the tiniest delay in loading a Web page isn't trivial. Amazon has 
metrics showing that a 0.1 second delay in page rendering can translate 
into a 1% drop in customer activity."

~Quite some thought for our own websites.

" "We don't focus on the optics of the next quarter; we focus on what is 
going to be good for customers. I think this aspect of our culture is 
rare." "

"The more he could get rid of needless costs, the easier it would be to 
deliver rock-bottom prices to customers. This crusade, he wrote, was 
"incredibly energizing."

~Be warned, the pressure on suppliers (us) and staff will be unremitting.

"Offices still get cheap desks made of particleboard door blanks, a 
1990s holdover that Bezos refuses to change.Managers may grumble, but 
they learn to bring sandpaper to work so their merino sweaters don't get 
shredded by splinters."

~Cheap and nasty is not efficiency. Bad attitude to staff.

"Bezos actually reads over-the-transom e-mail, which most CEOs regard as 
unbearable clutter. He scanned customer notes avidly when Amazon was 
tiny, and he hasn't shaken the habit. Dozens of times a year, 
unsolicited suggestions turn into feature improvements. Even angry 
e-mails are "fantastic if you want customers to be honest," Bezos says."

~Why I always recommend an email to Bezos when you need action.

Joseph