How Jeff Bezos responds to such failures.

In 2006, Amazon VP, Bill Carr led the launch of - Amazon Unbox.

Customers hated it.

Here is the painful self-review he wrote in his annual performance review.

And here's how Jeff Bezos responds to such failures.

Bills annual Self-review.>>
Overall, my performance was dreadful in 2006. In Unbox, our launch was poorly received, partly due to DRM [digital rights management] and licensing issues that restrict content usage, and selection, partly due to bad product choices we made for consumers (erring on the side of quality over download speed) and partly due to engineering defects. In any case, I didn’t manage these issues appropriately and the result was a weak launch with weak consumer response and negative press reaction. Net my performance versus goals can be summarized by a poor execution percentage in terms of projects completed and the main project that is complete (Unbox Video) is not a compelling customer experience (yet) and the rate of sales is pitiful. I think a grade of ‘D’ for my performance vs. goals would be generous.

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In retrospect, it is easy to see the mistakes. We had rushed Unbox out the door before it was ready. We didn’t want to come in second to Apple so we were in a frenzy to ship Unbox and ship it fast. This was directly antithetical to the notion of focusing on the customer, not the competitor.

Painful to read! At least I can say it embodied the “vocally self-critical” aspect of the Earn Trust leadership principle.

In any other company, I probably would have been fired. Fortunately for me, Amazon’s commitment to long-term thinking includes its investment in people.

They understand that when you innovate and build new things, you will frequently fail. If you fire the person, you lose the benefit of the learning that came along with that experience. Jeff would say something like this to a leader who had just laid an egg:

“Why would I fire you now? I just made a million-dollar investment in you.

Now you have an obligation to make that investment pay off. Figure out and clearly document where you went wrong. Share what you have learned with other leaders throughout the company. Be sure you don’t make the same mistake again, and help others avoid making it the first time.”