Is Amazon the new Cisco?
Update: 2025-11-02
Description
Patterns in technology tend to eventually repeat themselves (or at least rhyme), and Amazon is beginning to repeat some of the patterns of Cisco from the early 2000s
SHOW: 972
SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #972 Transcript
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SHOW NOTES:
- Staying nimble and continuing to strengthen our organization (Amazon, Oct 2025)
- Strengthening our culture and teams (Amazon, Sept 2024)
- Amazon Leadership Principles
WHERE ARE THE BIGGEST AI RISKS?
- Significant changes from one industry era to the next (Internet to SaaS, Cloud to AI)
- Once dominant position in a market now appears less dominant (Worth more than next 20 competitors; 7yr head start)
- Guiding cultural principles well-known within the company - start adding more and more to them
- Employee motivation driving by stock price as much as work activities
- Culture evolves and erodes over time as the business changes and evolves - it’s nearly impossible to reset the company culture
- Companies can rebound from being lost in the woods, but it’s very, very difficult
- Death by 1000 cuts in a virtuous cycle - employees are constantly more worried about job status than project status - the perception of who gets to make mistakes and who is responsible for mistakes
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