Difference between Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates?

I've given presentations on "creating passionate users" at both Amazon and Microsoft. 2 big companies, 2 CEOs. Guess which CEO has been to the talk? And he didn't just sit there, he participated. His hand shot up when I asked a question. He quit fondling his Blackberry. But far more importantly--he asked an amazing question.

And it was a question I can't imagine being asked by Bill Gates, even in the alternate universe where Bill Gates WOULD choose to see a talk on "creating passionate users."

So there he was, Jeff Bezos, third row. (The talk he came to was at O'Reilly's Foo Camp, not the one I did at Amazon.)

I tried to imagine what he was doing there. You're Jeff f'n Bezos. More than 10,000 people work for you. You're building a space ship!

After the talk, Jeff came up (patiently waiting his turn) and said he was really going to think hard about the implications of the some of the things we talked about, especially the part on levels and rewards. Then he asked, "How can I do more for our reviewers? These people do so much, and work so hard--especially the ones who do a lot of reviews -- and the 'Top [some number] Reviewer' badges are not enough." I was speechless. Not because I couldn't think of an answer, but because I couldn't believe someone this far up the food chain would even think--let alone care about this. My talk is geared toward--and usually attended by--founders of tiny start-ups, not Big Company CEOs. [Visualize me doing one of those cartoon double-take head shake eye-pop things]

But then I remembered my trip to Amazon, where Paul Graham gave a fabulous talk on what a company loses when it gets big, and how important it was to hang on to a start-up sensibility as you grow. Paul said to the Amazon folks, "You're a big company now, but how can you still act like a start-up in the ways that really matter."

And there's Jeff Bezos, doing exactly that. Acting just like the enthusiastic start-up folks I usually see--the ones whose chance for success hangs on their ability to make and keep users happy. The ones who don't have 10,000 other people to do it for them.

I have no idea if he thought about it ever again, and yes we all have our stories of bad Amazon customer service. But the point is, Jeff Bezos, CEO, chose to spend time and attention on a talk about user passion. And remember, what we (and Jeff) were talking about is at the implementation level, not some abstract concept of "we must be good to our customers." I believe most CEOs do care--at least strategically--about having happy users, but wouldn't waste a single synapse actually thinking about specific ways to make it happen.

So, to my original question on the difference between Jeff and Bill--would Bill Gates attend a talk like this? (And I'm not talking about my talk in particular, but anything--by anyone--on these kinds of user-happiness topics.) Ask yourself, would your CEO choose to hear a talk on how to create passionate users? How about your upper-level managers? Anyone besides you? When I worked at Sun, I gave many lunch-time "brown-bag" talks on this over my 4 years, and it would never have occurred to me that, say, Scott McNealy might drop in. Or any mid-to-upper-level manager. (Although I'm delighted that there are some kick-ass higher-up Sun folks I know now that are working on this... but I hadn't met any of them until recently.)

I didn't charge a fee to do this talk at Microsoft, or any other company that has convinced me they'll take it seriously and try to make a difference. I don't do this for pay; I do it because I believe it matters. The problem is, the places it matters the most are the ones least likely to think about it. No, they have too many other--apparently more important--things to think about. And for the rest of us? That means there's plenty of opportunities for small companies and start-ups that DO make user happiness (not the same as "customer satisfaction") the top priority.

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p.s. the question Jeff raised his hand on (and answered) was, "Who in popular culture speaks English without using contractions?" Jeff answered, correctly, "Data!" (thus reinforcing his geek cred). If you want to know why that question--and answer--was relevant, you'll have to read my earlier post on conversational language ; )