Tag: entrepreneurs

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos: This simple framework can help you answer the most difficult questions you face

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon is known as a detailed, data-driven company. But CEO Jeff Bezos said the e-commerce giant trains its staffers to understand that some decisions must be made with the gut.

“You have to realize: decision making isn’t one size fits all,” said Bezos at a gala this month held in New York by FIRST, a global STEM education nonprofit.

To know the difference, said Bezos, ask yourself two simple questions: “What are the consequences of this decision?” and “Is this decision reversible?”

Reversible decisions

Most decisions, says Bezos, are low consequence and reversible. These decisions can be made quickly with data and by junior teams. “If you make the wrong decision,” Bezos explained, “the cost is low.”

Big companies can become less nimble when small, reversible decisions are made using a “big consensus process.” Even if it isn’t the best move, moving fast will still help you get a leg up on the competition. “The cost of being slow is so much higher than the cost of getting the answer exactly right,” he said.

Bezos has talked about his decision-making framework in past shareholder letters. In one from 2016, he said, “most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70 percent of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90 percent, in most cases, you’re probably being slow.”

Using this framework can empower workers. Once you determine that the risk for making a certain decision is low, “then by all means make it yourself,” said Bezos.

Irreversible decisions

Irreversible decisions require more care. These high-consequence decisions should be made by senior leadership, single individuals or tiny teams, said Bezos.

Senior executives at Amazon often analyze irreversible, high-consequence decisions. In these situations, it’s appropriate “to use very slow, deliberate decision-making processes,” explained Bezos. The mogul even jokingly referred to himself as the “chief slow down officer.”

Bezos called these types of decisions “one-way doors” in a 2015 shareholder letter. He wrote, “If you walk through and don’t like what you see on the other side, you can’t get back to where you were before.”

With big, irreversible decisions, gut and intuition can play a big role. “People think of Amazon as very data-oriented and I always tell them, look, if you can make the decision with data, make the decision with data,” he said. “But a lot of the most important decisions simply cannot be made with data.”

The decision to greenlight Amazon Prime was ultimately based on intuition, he said. In some cases, the data will not provide you with a clear answer, especially when you are trying something that’s never been done before.

“There wasn’t a single financially savvy person who supported the decision to launch Amazon Prime. Zero. Every spreadsheet showed that it was going to be a disaster,” said Bezos. “So that had to just be made with gut.”

“Those kinds of decisions,” added Bezos, “they cannot be made analytically, so far as I know. They have to be made with gut.”

While big decisions will often need to be made with the gut, that gut needs to be informed by your own principles as well. Amazon’s principles, for instance, include ideas such as putting the customer first and inventing on behalf of the customer.

“You collect as much data as you can. You immerse yourself in that data,” said Bezos, “but then make the decision with your heart.”

(Source: CNBC, Make it)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Gujarat to bring law to make 80% local hiring must for firms

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Gujarat government would bring a law to made it mandatory for manufacturing and service sector entrepreneurs to hire 80 percent of their total workforce from the state, said Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Tuesday.

The proposed law also will make it compulsory for industrialists to recruit 25 percent of the required manpower from the area where they set up a new unit, he said.

The 25 percent quota will be part of the overall 80 percent jobs for the residents of Gujarat.

Manufacturing as well as service sector entrepreneurs wanting to start their operation in Gujarat must recruit 80 percent “Gujaratis”, he said.

Rupani was speaking at a function organised to distribute contract letters to youths under the ‘Mukhyamantri Apprenticeship Yojna’.

“The state government has taken a decision that any entrepreneur wanting to set up his industrial unit or service sector business in Gujarat must give 80 percent of their total jobs to Gujaratis. We will bring a law soon in this
regard,” Rupani said.

“In addition, industries have to recruit 25 percent locals belonging to the area where the unit would come up. We will bring a law to fix the responsibilities of industries in this regard,” he said.

Notably, Congress leaders, especially its MLA Alpesh Thakor, have threatened to launch a stir over the issue, claiming that despite giving assurance, companies are not following the 85 percent job quota rule in the state.

As per the state’s current policy, industrial units taking various incentives or benefits from the government to set up or run their business have to hire 85 percent of their workforce from the local population.

In his address, Rupani said his government aims to upgrade skills of one lakh youths by March 2019 through this scheme.

On the issue of unemployment, he slammed the Congress, saying the opposition party’s idea to give ‘unemployment allowance’ to youths would only increase the number of jobless people.

“Instead, our government believes in creating new employment opportunities by providing them (youths) training and upgrading their skills.

“The Congress only gave the slogan of ‘garibi hatao’ but did no planning to remove poverty or to provide employment,” Rupani said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India’s future icons to be honoured at Forbes India Tycoons of Tomorrow

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

With some of India’s biggest future icons in attendance, the Forbes India Tycoons of Tomorrow event to be held in Mumbai on Tuesday, September 25, promises to be a star-studded celebration of the country’s outstanding young innovators, entrepreneurs and trailblazers.

The felicitation ceremony will honour distinguished achievers, who are part of this year’s ‘Forbes India Tycoons of Tomorrow’ list to be unveiled in the magazine’s latest issue. The inaugural Tycoons of Tomorrow – in association with Facebook – recognises scions of family-managed businesses, first-generation entrepreneurs, and actors and sportspersons, who have displayed the dynamism to revitalise an existing enterprise, or have created something new, and, in the process, redefined the rules of business, industry or their craft.

“Whether it is China or Turkey or India, it’s the new billionaires in these countries who will drive development and industrialisation. It’s these wealth-creating tycoons who have the responsibility to take prosperity to the masses by creating more and better jobs because of the business they generate globally,” says Brian Carvalho, Editor, Forbes India.

The evening would also see a mix of insightful talks, panel discussions, and tête-à-têtes covering important contemporary themes.

These include panel discussion on ‘Building Tomorrow’s India’, with the likes of Karan Adani, Ashni Biyani, Upasna Kamineni Konidela, Rajeev Karthikeyan, Radha Kapoor Khanna, Anant Goenka, moderated by Shereen Bhan.

The other highlights include conversations with Hindi film industry’s most promising stars – Vicky Kaushal and Bhumi Pednekar on the ‘Changing character of storytelling in Indian Cinema’; with Olympic individual medalists PV Sindhu and Abhinav Bindra; and exclusive fireside chats with Bollywood heartthrobs Rani Mukerji and Ranveer Singh.

Tycoons of Tomorrow is not a ranking, but a qualitative selection based on a longlist compiled by the Forbes India team, and suggestions made by a six-member jury comprising Ajay Srinivasan, CEO, Aditya Birla Capital; Anil Rai Gupta, chairman and managing director, Havells India; Manish Sabharwal, co-founder and executive chairman, TeamLease Services; Prashant Purker, managing director & CEO, ICICI Venture Funds Management; Rajendra Srivastava, dean, Indian School of Business; and Rashesh Shah, chairman, managing director & CEO, Edelweiss Group.

The research process included interviews conducted by the Forbes India team, studies of databases, and media coverage. This helped us arrive at a longlist of more than 200 names, which was presented to the jury, with the following selection criteria: (1) The first-generation entrepreneurs and next-generation family businessperons or achievers should be below 45 years. (2) They should have steered their company for four to five years, and brought about significant achievement in the FY17-18 period, wherever relevant and applicable. We then narrowed down the list based on selections made by the jury. In the last stage, the Forbes India team selected the final names.

“The Forbes India Tycoons of Tomorrow List celebrates the talents of some of the most influential young achievers shaping India’s future. We hope it will inspire the country’s Generation Z, and become aspirational like all other prestigious Forbes India lists,” says Joy Chakraborthy, CEO – Forbes India and President, Revenue – Network18.

Disclaimer: CNBC-TV18 is a part of Network 18, the publisher of Forbes India

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow