Amazon’s success a company is beyond dispute. Its business model is proving almost perfectly suited to our 21st century needs, and it ranks today as one of the world’s leading companies by nearly every metric.
Despite this success, however, the company has not been immune from criticism. Those criticisms have included the company’s workplace culture and particularly the wages it pays its entry-level and other employees even while the company experiences vast financial profitability.
Inc. details how Amazon founder and chief executive officer Jeff Bezos responded to this criticism. He did so, in the U.S. market in 2018, by increasing employee wages to a minimum of $15-an-hour.
The action was at least partly responsive to the criticisms, but it is the public announcement that accompanied Amazon’s action on wages that impressed Inc. “We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we wanted to lead,” Bezos said in the company’s press release announcing the move on wages.
“We listened to our critics”
“We listened to our critics” are five special words in corporate leadership, Inc . contends. The magazine lays out four different ways these five words are demonstrative of seasoned leadership and ultimately prove hugely constructive.
