When Andy Jassy took the helm as Amazon’s CEO, he inherited both a formidable legacy and a company at an inflection point—a behemoth grappling with the competing demands of innovation, growth, and operational efficiency.

In a series of recent reflections, public appearances, and company communications, Jassy has opened up about his approach to leadership, offering granular guidance that’s resonating with industry insiders watching Amazon’s next chapter unfold.

A centerpiece of Jassy’s philosophy is the company’s set of 16 Leadership Principles, which have long underpinned Amazon’s corporate culture. Originally crafted by Jeff Bezos and his early team as 14 principles, these were expanded in 2021, just before the CEO transition, to encapsulate new challenges and strategic ambitions. As reported by Business Chief, Jassy emphasizes that these principles are “great tools that help us foster autonomous decision making as the company scales, and helps leaders lead beyond their immediate line of sight.” He recognizes, though, that embodying these values is not simply a checklist exercise. “These essential tenets of Amazon’s culture and values have arguably been the most important part of our ability to scale the company over the past few decades,” Jassy said, also acknowledging the continual learning involved in living up to them.

Jassy’s belief in flattening Amazon’s organizational hierarchy is garnering attention across corporate America. At the Harvard Business Review Leadership Summit, Jassy articulated a vision to “operate like the world’s largest startup.” The ambition: to accelerate decision-making and promote greater ownership among individual contributors. “We want to flatten our organizations, to move faster and to drive more ownership,” Jassy stated, underscoring the company’s plan to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15%—a goal Amazon expects to surpass by the end of the first quarter. As detailed in Business Insider, Jassy sees this as more than a structural tweak; it’s about cultural transformation, requiring leaders to commit to real, sometimes uncomfortable, change.

The drive to reduce bureaucracy is intentionally methodical at Amazon. Jassy describes a three-step approach for companies looking to follow suit. “The very first thing is the leadership team deciding they want to actually change it and resolving themselves to take action,” he said. He warns that shifting away from entrenched habits is never “simple,” yet it’s essential for organizations that want to maintain agility as they scale. Jassy also emphasizes the importance of robust feedback mechanisms to identify and address what slows teams down, a perspective that finds practical expression in Amazon’s famously frequent and candid review cycles.

Yet, Jassy’s focus is not inward-facing alone. Amidst geopolitical uncertainty and evolving trade dynamics, he urges leaders to “stay focused” on customers rather than becoming distracted by macroeconomic factors outside their control. As recounted by Business Insider, this conviction to prioritize customer needs above all remains a lodestar at Amazon’s highest levels of decision-making.

Ultimately, Jassy’s leadership advice—anchored by principles of ownership, curiosity, and customer obsession—is a nuanced blueprint for navigating the complexity of running one of the world’s most scrutinized organizations. His pragmatic humility, combined with a willingness to re-engineer legacy processes, signals a leadership tenure focused as much on cultural stewardship as on bottom-line performance. As he continues to shape Amazon’s path forward, industry executives are watching closely—not just for results, but for lessons in leading at scale in an era of relentless change.