Amazon’s first Innovation Day was held at the International Convention Centre in Sydney’s Darling Harbour yesterday,
The half-day program was attended by several thousand executives, start-up CEOs, IT managers and developers across a variety of industries.
Framed around Amazon’s ‘Day 1 Principles’, which govern the company’s culture, the Innovation Day program focused on encouraging Australian businesses to create a mindset that promotes innovation at scale.
The day included presentations from local and international Amazon executives, alongside external speakers such as Airtasker CEO Tim Fung and Atlassian futurist Dominic Price.
Amazon executive Russ Grandinetti spoke to the audience about Amazon's key leadership principle: customer obsession.
“Innovation always begins with what matters to customers. Customer obsession and innovation are a continuum. This means you shouldn’t start from the skills you already have; work backward from what customers want and learn those skills,” he said.
Amazon Australia country manager Rocco Braeuniger said the eCommerce platform would continue to innovate locally.
“At Amazon, it’s important for us to track and understand customer experiences. This feedback is incredibly valuable and allows us to update the customer experience quickly.”