Jeff Bezos was intermittently the richest man in the world, the man who built his wealth with the online commerce portal amazon, also has a policy on no presentations in the company and the sharing of ideas as a script on white paper. This way of communicating is said to bring great alacrity to the subject and the subjected. The white papers that are written by employees at Amazon have brought some path breaking wins to the organisation at last. As I see my Linkedin wall filled with expressions by friends who have started working in Amazon, I am pleased to see their bettering of writing skills, if not a peaceful break from the inundation of images all over my social feeds. As for me, a reader and writer, it is always a pleasure to meet with words. How then does architecture a visual medium take to the written word? For a reader it takes one into several worlds for sure. By the way, Amazon has another stellar rule, that no team should be bigger than being able to be fed by a two-pizza rule, I wonder what size of pizza we are talking about and what is the appetite of the humans on the team, for my local pizza guy makes a pizza about 4″ in diameter too! However Warren Buffet works alone, and specifies that he works alone.
Anyway back to the white paper rules, and how to write these white papers. Any meeting at Amazon begins in silence as the attenders read the white papers for 15-20 minutes and then arrive at a discussion. The papers are limited to 6 paegs, the font size is limited to between 11-12, in Calibri, single spaced, double sided, with unlimited appendices, clipart, photographs are supposed to be avoided, also data though great, the paper is supposed to have the writers views and opinions with all clarity. Though these are the basic rules, there are few more that look into the nitty gritties.
What a fabulous way to run a company I think, no wonder it is so successful. Yet this very single minded profit seeking company, we cannot blame them as every business seeks to make profit, has succeeded in over-consumption. The owner of a very old watch trading company in Secunderabad told me last month that earlier watches were made to work for 50 years or possibly as long as they could, companies like Allwyn and HMT, and therefore the companies shut as no one needed to buy watches frequently. But today watches are designed to run for 5 years and hence the watch manufacturers are ticking on. Amazon runs on the consumption pattern of the masses, their diligent way of working towards in makes sure they remain in the business and making profit too. Yet their way of working is a great way to live and work, possibly design our lives too. With journalling enjoying its moment to fame all over the world, again as a great way to crystallize thoughts or even to clear up the mind, white papers, limited in scope forces one to be very concise and hence again very clear in approach.
Vedasri Siddamsetty 