“Though it’s unclear whether Jeff knew about Charlie’s idea before sending out his directive to launch a free shipping program in October, it doesn’t really matter—the story is noteworthy for a couple of reasons. First, customer-focused ideas come from all areas within Amazon. Many companies have the “business people” tell the “technical people” what to build. There’s little discussion back and forth, and the teams stay in their own lanes. Amazon is not like this at all. It’s everyone’s job to obsess over customers and think of inventive ways to delight them. A second noteworthy aspect of the story is that when Charlie returned from vacation and found out we had decided to build something akin to his idea, he joined the team charged with making Prime a reality, and played a vital role on it.”