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Amazon jeff bezos5/10/2023 ![]() ![]() Part of the thinking behind the memo is that just giving a presentation can allow executives to skate by with a hazy vision of their ideas. High-level Amazon executives are busy, which means they’re not immune to being lazy when it comes to preparing presentations. ![]() For one thing, it forces them to focus on the work and to think deeply about the situation and the “narrative” that needs to be told. Writing an Amazon 6-page memo forces an executive to think differently. This at times can present opportunity for just a sketchy arrangement of topics that executives can then riff on as they present them. Further, PowerPoint documents can be assembled quickly, and often by junior colleagues. PowerPoint can allow them to gloss over logical inconsistencies or areas that haven’t been fully thought out. ![]() Often, an executive’s job is to share information and try to build alignment around a key decision. The Amazon memo is an example of how there are a multitude of opportunities on how to innovate! The Benefit The company believes the memo brings clear benefits to both the writer of the memo and the audience. Yet, there is clear rationale behind Amazon’s embrace of the memo. Instead, executives would write six-page memos whenever they were expected to present on an important managerial decision (for example, when launching new products or services or reviewing strategy or performance on existing ones, engaging in M&A evaluation, dealing with operational issues, etc.).Ībandoning the PowerPoint for the old-fashioned memo might seem technologically backwards. However, on June 9, 2004, Bezos sent a company-wide email banning the use of PowerPoint in executive meetings. This used to be the case at Amazon as well. Somewhere along the way, PowerPoint became the de facto go-to technology for executives to communicate information and vision. If you’ve been in a corporate environment at any point in the last twenty years, you know that virtually all meetings have one thing in common: PowerPoint presentations. ![]()
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