"There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second."

So, another fortnight has passed and I find myself becoming more and more integrated into what Amazon calls their 'peculiar' ways. The customer obsession that I mentioned in my previous post is truly something that all Amazonians learn to live by; I constantly get reminded that the focus is never to get too hung up on besting the competition, for if you can truly show that you care for your customers, they will come back to you instead of your rivals. Though this strategy seems to run contrary to what’s preached in most bschool textbooks, AMZN’s care for its customers seems to have paid off big time.

Another thing you will find at Amazon is that for meetings, PowerPoint slides are considered taboo. You got that right – all my deck-crafting skills built up over client meeting after client meeting at Accenture are completely worthless here. Instead, meetings are conducted with the presenter creating a white paper which is then distributed to all the members to read during the meeting. After everyone is done reading, there is a Q&A session to address any open topics up for discussion. The goal of this is to prevent bad content from hiding behind fancy slides and to ensure that the presenter has all the content prepared in a concise and readable format. While it initially seems a little unnerving to have such meetings where everyone is silently scrutinizing your every written word, it serves its purpose to ensure that meetings do not take overly long and keeps discussions on topic. It’s another AMZN peculiarity that gives Amazon its own unique culture.

One nice thing that Amazon does for its MBA interns is to organize executive speaker sessions over lunch (BYO food, naturally – the savings go to bringing all you customers lower prices, etc.) where senior VPs talk about their work at AMZN and give us a chance to pick their brains over various topics. I mean, how often do you get to ask Amazon’s CFO about his thoughts on investor relations? Now all they need is to convince Jeff B to give us a talk too.

Oh yes, I did promise to talk about the elevator art. Basically, the elevator wall panels are whiteboards with markers made available for talented (and not-so-talented) Amazonians to contribute a little ‘art’ on their daily elevator rides. I must admit to being impressed by some pieces, which I’ve shared with you below. It’s a cool touch, though in a building with only 6 floors, these budding Michelangelos have to possess some of the fastest drawing skills on the block.

“My Pokemans, let me show you them”

To round things off, I’d like to remind all avid readers that Amazon is offering a great selection of Kindle titles in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. All you need is an Amazon Prime membership (great value at only $79 annually) and a Kindle device to get started. More than 100,000 titles are available to be borrowed for free, including New York Times bestsellers like the Hunger Games trilogy and all 7 Harry Potter books. Unlike traditional lending, there are no limits on the number of copies available and readers never have to wait in line for the book they want. To learn more about the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, visit www.amazon.com/kindleownerslendinglibrary.

"Problem?" - Trollface