Now that customers had gotten a taste of free shipping, they no longer wanted to be forced to choose between “slow and free” and “fast and expensive.” Jeff exhibits discomfort when presented with an either/or proposition in which both results are mediocre. Viewed through the Customer Obsession and Insist on the Highest Standards leadership principles, the only answer to the question, “Which would you rather have, ‘slow and free’ or ‘fast and expensive’?” is “fast and free.” So the catch was that “fast and free” was where Amazon needed to go next, but our fulfillment capabilities were not up to
...more
