Amazon founder Jeff Bezos wants to get to the truth in his meetings, and he says PowerPoint presentations aren’t the way to do it. Reuters
Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos has a specific method for conducting the “perfect meeting.”
The billionaire said he prefers holding “chaotic” meetings at work.
He also prefers “crisp” memos rather than PowerPoint presentations for meetings.
This is a machine translation of an article from our US colleagues at Business Insider. It was automatically translated and checked by an editor.
Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos is not a fan of PowerPoint presentations in meetings.
The billionaire has very specific ideas about how his meetings should proceed, and the “perfect meeting” begins with days of preparation. Bezos spoke to the podcaster about how specifically Lex Fridman about his penchant for crystal-clear memos and long, rambling meetings.
“I like crisp documents and chaotic meetings,” said Bezos.
According to Bezos, new employees at online retailer Amazon and its rocket company Blue Origin can expect “the strangest meeting culture ever.” They begin with participants studying a six-page memo in silence for 30 minutes, followed by a discussion.
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Unlike PowerPoint presentations, which Bezos says are easy to create but difficult for listeners to understand, memos require much more time and effort from the writer.
This means an employee can spend weeks writing a six-page memo for a meeting. But when it’s done right, it has a certain beauty,” Bezos said.
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The process allows session participants to ask more productive questions and search for the truth rather than “hiding a bunch of sloppy thoughts in bullet points.”
In his effort to promote truth-seeking in the workplace, Bezos recommends no more compromise. Instead, they should “try to get as close to the truth as possible.”
“In our society and in companies, there are a number of mechanisms that we use to resolve these disputes,” Bezos said on the podcast, “many of which I think are really bad. An example of a really bad way to reach an agreement is compromise.”
Bezos has one too “Two pizza rule” introduced in his past work meetings. If two pizzas aren’t enough to feed the whole group, there are too many people in the meeting. This rule is intended to increase productivity and help avoid groupthink.
The tech billionaire was replaced by Andy Jassy as CEO of e-commerce giant Amazon in 2021. During his time at the helm of the company, Bezos pursued one „Day 1“-Philosophywhich encouraged its employees to work at the same speed and willingness to take risks as they would at a budding start-up.
Today, Bezos is CEO of the online retailer Amazon and is using some of the free time he gained from no longer being CEO to become more involved in Blue Origin.
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